Feb. 14, 2012
Translated by Ma Zheng
Source: China News Service
The Ministry of Land and Resources has instructed its officials in State Land Supervision bureaus China to address the issue of illegal land use with local governments.
The local governments concerned are Chonqing, Sichuan, Ningxia, Qinghai, Guizhou, Hubei, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Shanghai.
The Ministry of Land and Resources plans to penalize principal officials, particularly those in Hubei Province, where illegal land use is widespread.
On Feb 7, Chang Jiaxing (常嘉兴), director of the Chengdu Bureau of State Land Supervision, addressed Jiang Youyi (蒋又一), head of Yongchuan District (永川区), telling him that a new construction under his supervision had suffered from inadequate land management and a lack of construction supervision.
In Xi'an, an inspection of two nearby cities found that more than 15 percent of industrial and arable land was being used illegally.
Last year, the Ministry of Land and Resources punished such illegal land use activity with internal disciplinary procedures, a sanction that many consider to be too lenient.
An unnamed expert expressed that the problem shouldn’t be viewed in terms of the number of officials punished, but in terms of the severity of the punishments.
“There are punishments every year, but nobody is removed from their jobs, so the same thing happens every year,” he said.
Links and Sources
Beijing Times: 九省份违法用地地方领导被约谈