VietNamNet Bridge – Capital authorities yesterday, July 12, admitted responsibilities for improper management of the capital's lakes and parks, causing public outrage over public land encroachment at the question-and-answer session of Ha Noi People's Council meeting.

At the meeting, Deputy Chairman of Ha Noi People's Committee Nguyen Van Khoi admitted many of the parks currently under construction have incurred serious problems related to zoning and land clearance procedures.

Particularly, the Tuoi Tre (Young People) Park, expected to cover 26.4 hectares, was originally designed to become a landmark capital park that would serve the growing need of residents' cultural, entertainment, and sports activities.

However, the public has been frustrated at many land encroachment works, including tennis courts, restaurants, bars, popping up in the area designed for building the park's facilities.

Participants at the People's Council meeting also said other similar problems existed at other parks and lakes in the city as well, such as Thu Le and Dong Da parks, Hoa Binh Park, Thanh Cong Lake Park, and Ba Mau Lake.

The unregulated environment of construction works around these areas reflected the failure of authorities' urban management and sub-contractors' responsibilities, they said.

According to Khoi, at least 25 unpermitted construction works were built in the area reserved for Tuoi Tre Park between 2001-07 and the city was able to coerce most of them.

The People's Committee agreed that it would soon instruct the Hai Ba Trung District authorities (where the park is located) to speed up land clearance and deal with those who violated construction rules in the area.

Khoi said the capital understood the need to further encourage the private sector into developing and building public parks, however, most of the private investors would want spaces for commercial and trading purposes, and thus that would damage zoning purpose of the city.

The meeting also focused on recent disputes between residents and investors at many apartment complexes in the city.
Nguyen The Hung, head of the city's Department of Construction, said many apartment complexes had established a management committee to deal with arising conflict issues but said further efforts must be done.

Hung said in 2008, the city issued a regulation related to managing apartment complexes but the regulation expired. The department is working with the city authorities for drafting a new regulation that would deal with issues of the management of high-rise buildings.

Hung said the department would continue working on problems such as the slow process of handing apartments to beneficiaries, especially those that were relocated.

In relation to such problems, Hung said Ha Noi was the first locality to apply the floor prices for setting fees at these apartments but currently the level must be adjusted.

However, he said it was difficult to apply the same floor prices for all types of apartment complexes. Regardless, all measures must make sure to protect the rights of both tenants and investors.

In other matters, Deputy Chairman of Ha Noi People's Committee Nguyen Van Suu said the city planned to allocate VND2,100 billion (US$100 million) for compensation related to land clearance and priorities would be given to projects that are on schedule.

In providing financial assistance to struggling businesses, the city said it would publicly announce some time this month a procedure for businesses to apply for assistance.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News