The number of illegal land expropriation cases
increased sharply last year, but so did prosecutions, the Ministry
of Land and Resources said.
The ministry revealed in a circular yesterday that
3,593 people, including two ministerial and provincial level
officials, were punished after more than 90,000 cases of land use
violations were investigated last year.
The circular revealed 385 people were penalized for
illegal mining activities.
Meanwhile, the ministry said it detected and stopped
some 35,000 illegal land use activities, saving a potential
economic loss of 1.64 billion yuan (US$212 million).
The ministry also uncovered more than 130,000 cases of
illegal land use last year, an annual increase of 17.3
percent.
The illegal cases involved approximately 100,000
hectares of land, nearly half of which was arable land, a 77
percent increase over the previous year.
"This demonstrates the country has strengthened the
crack-down effort of illegal activities in the field of land
management," Zhang Xinbao, director of the execution and
supervision department of the ministry, said.
"The soaring number of these cases and the increasing
area of land involved in these cases showed a rebounding trend of
violations in land management regulation nationwide.”
"The local government-led land acquisition in the
disguised form of rent is still the main form of violation in land
use."
Zhang said the reason for the rebound was because
local governments' blind pursuit of economic growth remained
unchecked.
"Illegal land acquisition activities caused by the
incomplete system, like 'land use without approval,’ are stoked
under the mandate to pursue faster economic growth," he
said.
Zhang said although local governments usually did not
openly defy laws, they often secretly allowed illegal land
acquisitions to lure more investment.
To curb the trend that local government was attracting
investment with the promise of very low land use fee, even a "zero
land use fee,” the ministry has set bottom prices for land intended
for industrial use, starting from this year.
Premier Wen Jiabao has pledged to get tough on land use
violations to better protect the country's diminishing arable
land.
Zhang said that many local governments had still
approved luxurious constructions like villas and golf courses,
despite bans.
(China Daily March 21,
2007)
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