Fears of social unrest as rural land grab worsens 40 million farmers have lost out in the name of progress
SCMP | 5 feb by Nailene Chou Wiest http://www.chinastudygroup.org/index.php?type=news&id=4619 Each year two million mainland farmers lose their land and drift into the cities, only to be unable to secure a job or an education for their children. About 40 million farmers have been driven from the land nationwide and discontent over corruption and the low compensation they have been paid could seriously affect social stability unless their rights are better protected. This warning, published in the official People's Daily on Monday, was the latest call for the government to address land abuse, which is likely to be the hot issue at the annual conference of the National People's Congress next month. The problem has become acute since the campaign to develop the west accelerated the seizure of land from farmers for roads, dams, utilities and industrial parks. Half of the land appropriated by local governments had been resold to commercial developers, the report said. The farmers in those areas were paid a maximum of 18,000 yuan - enough to live for seven years in the countryside or two years in towns. Various taxes and levies are often deducted from the compensation or the payments are delayed for years, forcing thousands of landless farmers to join the swelling ranks of disgruntled people who have petitioned Beijing in the past two years. Under the constitution, all land belongs to the state or collectives. Only governments can acquire land and seizures are often carried out in the name of economic development or job creation. But in reselling the land at higher prices to developers, local governments often pocket most of the profits. The People's Daily article called for measures to increase the amount of compensation and allow farmers to share any profits from resales. It also urged local governments to take more responsibility for creating jobs and providing housing for dispossessed farmers. A resolution at the third plenum of the 16th Communist Party Congress last October stated that the wanton appropriation of farmland must be curbed to protect the rights of farmers and the security of the nation's grain production. Minister of Land and Resources Sun Wensheng announced in December that the government would put land officials below provincial level under the ministry's control, therefore depriving local governments of the right to control land use. Mr Sun said that close to half of the nation's 6,015 economic development zones had either been abolished or merged, and about 168,000 land fraud cases were investigated. At a recent meeting on fighting corruption, state investigators said that this year they would focus more on social injustices such as abuses by officials in land acquisitions. ------------------------------------------------- This mail sent through IMP: http://horde.org/imp/
