45 constructions violating Soc Son forest land have not been handled yet

Hanoi: After the 2019 inspection conclusion, in the two communes of Minh Tri and Minh Phu, Soc Son district, there were 139 cases of forest land violations, of which 45 projects have not been handled yet.

Reporting to the city on the management and handling of violations of forest land, the People's Committee of Soc Son district said that there are still many illegal constructions in the district according to the conclusion of the Hanoi City Inspectorate in 2019 and there have been new cases arising in recent years.

Specifically, Minh Tri commune still has 25 constructions, Minh Phu commune still has 8 constructions that violated records in 2017 and 2018 that have not been processed. After the conclusion of the Inspection, 139 more cases of land violations with construction works continued to arise.

The district has directed two communes to handle 94 cases, but has not yet completely handled 45 cases of construction works, including some works at Ban Tien Lake (Minh Phu Commune) and Dong Do Lake (Minh Tri Commune).

Dong Do Lake area, Minh Tri commune, Soc Son, has a number of illegal constructions that have not been handled. Photo: Hoang Phong — Dong Do Lake area, Minh Tri commune, Soc Son, has a number of illegal constructions that have not been handled. Photo: *Hoang Phong*

Regarding the handling of individuals involved in the violations, the district has disciplined 11 officials of two communes, including the dismissal of the Chairman of Minh Phu commune, warning the Chairman of Minh Tri commune, reprimanding 2 Vice Chairmen of the commune, 4 officers of the urban construction order management team and 3 commune land officials. The district also transferred the Party Secretary of Minh Tri commune.

Soc Son district believes that the reason for the above existence is the inadequacy in the 2008 forest planning. Forest planning overlaps with household land, national defense and security land, project land, and agency headquarters. During the planning implementation process, there was no overall project, mechanism, or policy to implement land and forest allocation, determine forest and forestry land boundaries, and measure cadastral maps of forest land.

In addition, the handling of some violations is still slow because some households have filed lawsuits and the People's Court has issued documents applying emergency measures to stop the enforcement of administrative decisions.

Some households have repeatedly filed complaints to the commune, district and Government Inspectorate. The Government Inspectorate then issued a directive to temporarily suspend enforcement to resolve complaints and clarify legal documents related to the Soc Son forest planning project.

Soc Son district said that there were households living and producing before the 2008 forest planning period but their rights were not guaranteed because "the planning was not fully implemented". This led to violations and arbitrary construction of works within the forest planning. In addition, many households from other places came and took advantage of the local people to violate and profit.

"A number of officials lack determination, are lenient, avoid responsibility in state management, handle violations, and are slow to detect and report for timely handling," the report stated.

The house violated forest land in Ban Tien hamlet, Minh Phu commune, where flash floods buried many cars, August 4, 2023. Photo: Hoang Phong — The house violated forest land in Ban Tien hamlet, Minh Phu commune, where flash floods buried many cars, August 4, 2023. Photo: *Hoang Phong*

To completely resolve violations, Soc Son district will speed up the progress of reviewing and evaluating the current state of forests, and making statistics on shortcomings to report to the city, update the general planning of the capital and the district, and serve as a basis for adjusting the 2008 forest planning.

The district People's Committee directed the two communes of Minh Phu, Minh Tri and other communes with forests to classify the remaining violations for handling, and resolutely handle newly arising violations from the beginning. "Continue to consolidate files, transfer cases of buying, selling, transferring forest land, land occupation and forest land destruction to the police for investigation," said the Soc Son district People's Committee.

Soc Son protective forest covers an area of 4,557 hectares spread over 10 communes including: Minh Phu, Minh Tri, Hien Ninh, Bac Son, Nam Son, Hong Ky, Phu Linh, Quang Tien, Tien Duoc, Tan Minh and Soc Son town. The encroachment on Soc Son forest land has been going on for many years.

In 2006, the Government Inspectorate discovered many violations after inspecting the management and use of forest land at Soc Son Forestry Enterprise and 9 communes. In the protective and special-use forests in Soc Son, the authorities counted more than 650 households building works on forestry land with an area of 11 hectares.

In 2019, the Hanoi Inspectorate announced its conclusion pointing out thousands of violations of protective forest land. In the two communes of Minh Phu, Minh Tri and the areas around large lakes (Dong Quan, Ham Lon, Dong Do...) in the forest planning, there were 797 violating constructions. About 40 district officials were disciplined, and the violating constructions were demolished.

While the government is still reviewing and separating residential land areas that overlap with protected forest land to have a basis for handling, many constructions continue to spring up on planned forest land.

Vo Hai

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