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China's local governments ordered to shape up on arable land protection |
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08:43, July 13, 2007 |
China''s land control authorities Thursday named four local governments who have been ordered to rectify illegal arable land use situations and pledged not to be soft or tolerant of any shirking of duties.
They are the Beijing Municipal government, the provincial governments of Henan and Yunnan and the Dalian City government.
Xu Shaoshi, the state land inspector general who doubles as the minister of Land and Resources, said all four governments have taken immediate actions to straighten out their problems.
The problems included acquiescing in land expropriation without actual approval, encouraging the leasing of farm land to get round the ban on confiscation and revising land use plans to erode the area of farm land.
Responding to the ministry, the Beijing Municipal government carried out a check and detected 442 illegal land use cases involving a total area of 1,053 hectares, more than half of which was arable land.
The Henan Provincial government revoked its prior approval of the land use application of Henan Fengshen Tyre Company supported by Jiangzuo City government and returned the 26.7 hectares of farm land occupied to farmers. Three other similar violations were detected.
The Yunnan Provincial government reclaimed 4.4 hectares of farm land from the Qujing City Government who illegally expropriated the land for the construction of a vocational education center. The project has been banned after the Qujing City government submitted a written self-criticism to the provincial government. A total of 2,034 illegal land use cases have been uncovered in the province since 2005 involving an aggregate land area of 655 hectares.
The Dalian City government responded by initiating an investigation which exposed 879 hectares of land misused without prior authorization.
"These cases are not exceptional. Quite a number of city and county government acquiesced, countenanced or even pulled the strings behind deals involving the illegal use of arable land," said Xu Shaoshi at a press conference in Beijing.
He warned that land inspectors would use all possible means--legal, administrative, economic or technical-- to catch violators. He added that the land use quota of local governments cited in these cases would be reduced for the following year.
"We will not let them get an unfair advantage", he said.
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