Following instructions from Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha, Lich didn't have to pay any money to get the certificate.
"I’m so happy to have it now," the 75-year-old woman said, holding her land use right certificate when talking with DTiNews reporters. "I have to thank the prime minister and the minister of Natural Resources and Environment for helping me to get it after more than a decade. I also want to express my sincere thanks to DTiNews Newspaper and lawyer Ho Nguyen Le for supporting me over the past year."
Lich holding her land use right certificate
Lich has been involved in a long dispute with local authorities of Duc Trong district over the land use right certificate.
Before 1975, Lich's family had cleared nearly 4,000 square metres of scrub land. They had been cultivating the land for 11 years before giving the usage of it to the agricultural co-operative in 1986, of which they were a member. The local authorities gave them a lot of nearly 600 square metres of residential land.
In 1993, Lich asked Duc Trong district People's Committee for compensation for their 4,000m2 of farm land which had been used for other purposes but received no response.
When Lich prepared to asked for the land use right certificate for her residential land lot, the committee decided to divide it into two lots, 253.9 square metres of residential land and 310m2 of farm land. However, they asked Lich to pay a land use fee of VND5.7 billion ($253,900) for the residential land area.
Lich disagreed with the decision by Duc Trong People's Committee and had sent various complaints to agencies including Lam Dong Province's People Committee, Lam Dong province's Party Committee, and the province's NA deputies calling for help. But she again received no response.
Lich then sought help from local media. DTiNews followed her story and published more than 50 investigations which showed various wrongdoings.
And after the case was brought to the media and received lots of attention from the public, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Tran Hong Ha, on May 13 sent a delegation led by the head of the General Department of Land Management to Lam Dong to investigate the case.
The investigation team have found out various wrongdoings by local authorities in Duc Trong district and the minister then asked them to urgently grant the certificate to Lich's family without asking for any fee.
Minister Ha also vowed to strictly punish all the individuals involved in the case after further investigations are carried out.
