How should the government of Hua County, Henan Province be resolved when it is accused of competing with the people for profit?

On August 9, Voice of China paid attention to the incident of government departments in Hua County, Henan Province running businesses and leading cadres from many departments working part-time in the enterprises. On the same day, the Hua County Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision established a joint investigation team to investigate the matter. The cause of this incident was a land lease dispute between villagers of Xixiaozhuang Village, Chengguan Town, Huaxian County, and an enterprise run by the former village party secretary and village director. Huaxian Wensen Company, an enterprise with a government background, intervened in this dispute. After that, a series of incidents occurred: Wensen Company failed to convene a village meeting in accordance with the provisions of the Rural Land Contract Law, nor did it obtain three With the consent of more than two-thirds of the villagers, construction will begin on the 250 acres of land collectively owned by Xixiaozhuang Village involved in the dispute. After the villagers blocked the construction, many villagers were administratively detained by the Hua County Public Security Bureau.

Currently, the land contract dispute between the Chengguan Town government and villagers in Huaxian County is still ongoing. Previously, during an investigation in Huaxian County, CNR reporters found that the town government and villagers each had their own explanations for the underlying reasons behind the dispute. The town government believes that the intervention of Wensen Company is because the Hua County Government is responsible for the people; while many villagers believe that the intervention of Wensen Company, which has a government background, is because the Hua County Government is competing for profits with the people.

1. Local officials: In order to quell land disputes, third-party companies took over at a loss

Huaxian County, Henan Province has been an advanced county in national grain production for many years. Cultivated land is of great significance to the economic and social development of this county. development, plays a decisive role. Xixiaozhuang Village, which has only 52 households, belongs to this village. In the next three or four years, the high-speed rail from Jinan to Zhengzhou will pass through the village and a high-speed rail station will be set up.

Xixiaozhuang Village has an unwritten village agreement, the village collective land

"Add people to add land, subtract people to remove land", "Five years a small adjustment, ten years a major adjustment ”, so that the villagers can have arable land to make a living. In 2003, at the time of the ten-year land transfer, the villagers freed up 250 acres of land and redistributed it among households in the village.

However, without convening a village representative meeting or villagers’ meeting, the village committee signed a land lease contract with Henan Hualian Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Company to lease the 250 acres of land to Hualian Agricultural and animal husbandry companies. Hualian Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Company is an enterprise established by the village party secretary. Since ordinary people have not received land rent for many years and cannot get back the land that originally belonged to the village collective, 47 households in the village took Hualian Agriculture and Animal Husbandry to court at the end of 2015, trying to protect their legitimate rights and interests through legal channels.

46 of the 52 households in the village did not agree to hand over the 250 acres of land involved in the case to any enterprise for management

On June 1, 2016, the Hua County People’s Court made a judgment: Due to the Before the contract was signed, neither the villagers' meeting nor the villagers' representative meeting was held, which violated the mandatory provisions of the law. Therefore, the land lease contract signed between Hualian Agriculture and Animal Husbandry and the village committee was invalid. The 47 villagers of the plaintiff stated that the issue of land return was not dealt with in this case. It was an act of the parties to handle their civil rights on their own, which was not contrary to the law, and the court approved it. On November 16 of the same year, the Anyang Intermediate People's Court made a final appeal and upheld the Hua County Court's judgment.

However, the court's decision has become the source of conflict between the Hua County government and the villagers of Xixiaozhuang.

Three months after the final judgment came into effect, the Xixiaozhuang Village Committee convened a village representative meeting and a villagers assembly to divide the 250 acres of land involved in the case equally among each household. This behavior was not only not recognized by Hualian Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, but was also denied by the Chengguan Town Government of Huaxian County. Earlier this year, Huaxian Wensen Development Management Co., Ltd., a subsidiary company of the Huaxian Forestry Bureau, intervened in the matter. Since then, Hua County officials and villagers have had two different interpretations of the entire incident surrounding Vincent Company, a company with a government background.

From the perspective of Hua County officials, this judgment only confirms that the land lease contract between the Xixiaozhuang Village Committee in 2003 and Hualian Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, an enterprise run by the then village party secretary, is invalid; Clarify who has the right to use the 250 acres of land involved in the case.

The Hua County government believes that the court did not award the right to use the village collective land to the village collective

Hu Chaoliang, secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission of Chengguan Town, Hua County, who has been responsible for handling the matter, said: "The verdict It shows that the contract is invalid and there is no requirement to return the land. The village committee requires the return of the land and needs to negotiate with the government to resolve the matter or take legal action. Currently, the government mediates this issue and the two parties have no agreement.

”

Hu Chaoliang said that in recent years, the government has been troubled a lot about the 250 acres of land in Xixiaozhuang Village. The villagers of Xixiaozhuang Village even asked the town government to abandon 800 acres of cultivated land in the village. Pressure: “The village committee held a village meeting and allocated the land without the consent of Hualian Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Company. From February 17th to May 28th, during this period, the police were called 17 times, major conflicts occurred twice, and minor conflicts occurred countless times. ”

Minutes of the village committee’s plenary meeting of villagers in February 2017 to discuss land distribution matters

In Hu Chaoliang’s view, even the ownership and use rights of the land belong to the village collective Hualian Agriculture and Animal Husbandry’s attachments on the 250 acres of land involved in the case, including 180 acres of grapevines, machine wells, etc., are still the legal property of Hualian Agriculture and Animal Husbandry because in the previously signed land lease contract, the village committee party. If there is any fault, Hualian Agriculture and Animal Husbandry should be liable for the loss. But obviously, the village committee cannot bear the multi-million yuan loss.

Hu Chaoliang said: "In order to avoid conflicts between them. , introduce a third-party entrusted management that has nothing to do with both parties. Your Hualian Company claims that the attachments on the ground will be evaluated by an appraisal company and the compensation will be compensated; the villagers' land, the local rental price, one acre of land For six to seven hundred yuan, through the company's work, the Vincent company can pay up to 1,100 yuan per mu of land. This means that the government requires a third party to come forward to resolve the conflict between the two parties. Neither party cultivates the land, and both parties benefit. "

Hu Chaoliang believes that the intervention of Wensen Company is a mediation made by the Hua County government in desperation to calm the dispute. The intervention of Wensen Company has also been approved by the authority in the village: "He Now it does not mean that a formal contract or agreement has been formed, but an escrow. When the public can look at this issue rationally, a formal document or agreement may be signed. "

Reporter: "Even now there is no formal agreement with Vinson Company? "

Hu Chaoliang: "This should not be an agreement. He should be entrusted by a power of attorney, that is, the village branch and village committee. ”

For this reason, Hu Chaoliang believes that the villagers’ obstruction of Vincent Company’s construction is an illegal act and should be punished by law. However, Hu Chaoliang admitted that Vincent Company’s intervention did not go through the villagers’ representative meeting or villagers’ assembly This is a legal procedure. Moreover, the third-party enterprise Vincent Company has no formal contract with the villagers or Hualian Agriculture and Animal Husbandry.

2. Villagers: The value of the land for building the high-speed railway will increase, and the government-run enterprise will do so. Fighting for land and profit

In the eyes of many villagers in Xixiaozhuang, they have different interpretations of the verdict. The story in their mouths is also another version of what the Hua County government said about the government's proactive role. In the eyes of the villagers, the behavior of taking responsibility for the people is a farce between the government and the people. Continue to listen to the report:

The villagers believe that the land is owned by the village collective and is used by Hualian Agriculture and Animal Husbandry. After occupying it for more than ten years, the land has now been returned to us through a court ruling, and the villagers’ representative meeting and villagers’ assembly decided to divide it. This is natural.

Villager Luo Haiguang believes: “The court has already awarded it to us. , the villagers' representative meeting was held first and then the villagers' meeting was held. Every household had a share and the land was allocated. ”

Villager Zhang Tianhai told a China Voice reporter: “I took notes of this meeting at the time. There were party members, five or six representatives of the village committee, and more than 10 people. We agreed that we should continue to add more people according to the past tradition. There is no contradiction between people adding land and people leaving land. It will ensure that future generations can have a living by marrying a wife or having a child. They all agreed, and the next day the village committee said that there would be a small movement every five years and a big movement every ten years, and everyone agreed to divide the land. Every household went there. "

A legal person familiar with the matter said that the town government's notice was a deliberate misinterpretation of the law and the judgment: "If this is the case, the judgment will have no meaning, the contract is invalid, what? No legal consequences will arise. Should the land be sown or cultivated? Should it be contracted or contracted? I still need to negotiate with him. What if he doesn’t give me the negotiation? If he negotiates, will he still have to litigate? If these lands can be obtained through self-reliance, there is no need to resort to litigation. Legally speaking, if a contract is deemed invalid, it should be restored to its original status. ”

Many villagers in Xixiaozhuang Village do not appreciate the Hua County government’s approach of “taking responsibility for the people.”

On July 6 this year, Vinson Company came to the village and tried to enclose 250 acres of land with steel wire mesh, but was blocked by the villagers. More than a dozen villagers were administratively detained for picking quarrels and provoking trouble, including two elderly people over 70 who were not detained.

On July 6, Huaxian County Public Security Bureau imposed administrative detention on 14 people from Xixiaozhuang for picking quarrels and provoking trouble

Villager Yang Lanxiang has been arrested four times because of this incident: "Come on When they were robbing our land, (I said) you should take out the contract from Vincent Company. He said you should go to the Foreign Investment Office and ask for the money. I said this is the land of my Xi Xiaozhuang, and you should give the money to the Foreign Investment Office. , Are you growing land managed by the state-owned enterprises? He said he didn’t want to tell you and just pushed me into the car. I’ve been there four times.”

Visitor Li Aiju is still concerned about the scene at that time. I still remember: "If you don't let them do the work, you are provoking them. They arrested me again two days ago. I spoke loudly, and they held me down and sentenced me to 15 days."

According to the villagers, the police detained villagers who blocked the construction many times. During this dispute, the police arrested or tried to arrest 52 people from 25 households. This is a small village with only 52 households.

Number of arrests counted by villagers

Villager Zhang Junfen still can’t let go: “When he (Vinsen Company) came to dig this foundation, we arrested as many people as we came to (block) him. Man, now that I hear this police car, I feel panic in my heart."

Zhang Tianhai was a little indignant: "The troubles in Xixiaozhuang are not safe at all, and I won't be able to survive that year. Arrest people."

The villagers believe that the reason why Wensen Company took the land so forcefully is not because the government compensated Hualian Farming and Animal Husbandry on behalf of the village committee. All this was caused by the high-speed rail station: " Why didn't he acquire this land in the first two years? Why did he not build a high-speed rail? This land is valuable, so he just took advantage of it to make a profit."

Public information shows. The high-speed rail line from Zhengzhou to Jinan has been fully constructed. In the Henan section, there is a "Huajun Station", which is the collective name of Huaxian and Junxian counties. This Huajun Station is located in the west of Xixiaozhuang Village.

Hu Chaoliang, secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission of Chengguan Town, Huaxian County, flatly denied the villagers' speculation: "The high-speed rail station is indeed nearby. The high-speed rail station has been under construction for more than a year. The construction of the high-speed rail station has nothing to do with the development of their land." There is no connection between ownership. Before the land is expropriated by the state, its nature is collective land.”

However, Hu Chaoliang did not explain that the construction of the high-speed rail station was related to the Wensen Company’s attempt to obtain the use rights of the 250 acres of land. time, is there any contact? This is what many villagers are worried about: the land that has been occupied by Hualian Agriculture and Animal Husbandry for more than ten years is now requiring the village committee to compensate millions, and the land is handed over to the government-backed Vinson Company. Once the village wants to take back the land , who knows what things Vincent Company will plant on the land that the village committee cannot afford to pay for? !

A legal person who is familiar with this conflict said frankly that the current approach of the government and Vinson Company is a repeat of the invalid land lease contract between the village committee and Hualian Agriculture and Animal Husbandry: "The village committee is It has no power to decide whether the land can be contracted to Wensen Company. Why did the court rule that the contract was invalid? It was because your village committee did not go through the villagers' representative assembly or village representative meeting before contracting the land to Hualian Company. To decide, isn’t this history repeating itself? If you lease the land not to Hualian, but to Vinson Company, and let the village committee come forward, is it reasonable for the farmers to make their own decisions? If you don’t have the final say, then who owns these lands?”

From China Daily