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Opinion / Commentary
Land violations
(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-18 07:26
Illegal occupiers of arable land seem to be playing a cat and mouse game
with the country's watchdog.
The number of cases involving illegal approval of land use by local
governments has dramatically decreased, while other forms of violations
such as leasing land from villagers instead of through acquisition is on
the increase.
Officials from the Ministry of Land and Resources described the new
violations as quite serious at a press conference yesterday. The
violations will be severely dealt with in a 100-day campaign launched by
the ministry yesterday.
The new forms of illegal occupation of land are even more detrimental to
the country's land management system, to market order, and to the
interests of rural villagers.
If a plot of farmland is occupied for non-agricultural purposes without
being legally approved, but through a leasing agreement between rural
villagers and the developer, the ministry is in the dark as to how much
arable land is shrinking.
If such a practice becomes rampant, the watchdog will quite likely lose
control of market order when a large slice of illegally-occupied land
enters the market. Correspondingly, the overheating investment in the
real estate sector will also be out of control.
The law does not protect the parties in such illegal deals. The interests
of rural villagers will be affected. The most probable result will be
villagers not receiving fair compensation for the loss of their land
rights. They rely on arable land for making a basic living.
What is even more serious is the danger that such a practice is quite
likely to undermine the central government's strategic goal of keeping
the total area of arable land at no less than 120 million hectares. The
total area of arable land is now 122 million hectares.
Some developers and local governments have gone too far by occupying land
without going through any legal procedure. Some development zones occupy
more land than they are permitted.
In all these illegal land occupations, local governments seemingly have a
hidden hand. They should be held accountable for the violations taking
place.
The 100-day campaign should not only catch the mice, but also help
establish institutional mechanisms to wipe out the existence of such mice.
(China Daily 09/18/2007 page10)
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