Da Nang meets with families over land complaints TUOITRENEWS  A Da Nang resident voices his complaint at the dialogue with authorities on January 21, 2013 Photo: Tuoi Tre The Da Nang City People’s Committee on Monday held a meeting with 19 families to settle their long-standing land complaints, some of which have lasted for over 10 years.   The meeting was also attended by Tran Nha, deputy head of the Department for Settlement of Complaints and Denunciations under the Government's Inspectorate. Most of the complaints were focused on site clearance and compensation and have been settled by the city government based on conclusions of the Inspectorate or opinions of the Prime Minister. Nonetheless, many families have not agreed to the settlements and continue to lodge complaints to concerned agencies.  Therefore, at the meeting, Van Huu Chien, chairman of the city People’s Committee, requested that those families whose complaints have been already settled not repeat these complaints. Chien requested that these families comply with the Government’s Inspectorate and relevant decisions by the city government.  The authorities would stop examining any complaints that have been resolved and would only deal with complaints that remain unsettled, Chien said. However, Tran Van Minh, a resident of Thanh Khe District, said, “My family is tired after 10 years of pursuing our complaint. Why did the authorities reclaim land from us and then sell it to someone else? We will continue complaining until the land is given back to us.” Meanwhile, a number of complaints were resolved by the authorities at the meeting. One such cases is that of Nguyen Van Cho, from Ngu Hanh Son District, who complained that, “The authorities reclaimed 700 square meters of land from our family and paid only VND300 million (US$14,400) as compensation to us. The authorities later sold two small land plots to us for as much as VND250 million. In such a situation, how can our family live?” Da Nang authorities held a dialogue with 19 households over land complaints on Janurary 21 (Photo: Tuoi Tre) ‘I want the authorities to grant us one more plot of land,” Cho told Chien. After examining Cho’s case, Chien agreed to grant one more plot of land to Cho’s family, and Cho said the settlement was satisfactory. Cho said he “thanked the city’s chairman for the decision”. At the dialogue, the Government’s Inspectorate also recorded the opinions of families who claimed that official settlements were not satisfactory. As previously reported, the Inspectorate has recently concluded that the Da Nang City People’s Committee committed land-related wrongdoings causing a loss of VND3,434 billion (US$160.58 million) from 2003 to 2011. However, the latter has rejected this allegation. Nguyen Ba Thanh, city Party Committee Secretary and head of the Central Internal Affairs Commission, told Tuoi Tre that the local government had handled land-related issues within its legal authority. He said the Inspectorate’s conclusion is groundless, unconvincing, and impractical.  Van Huu Chien, chairman of the city People’s Committee, also considered the conclusion “unpersuasive and abnormal”.