A group of officials in Zhouzhi County, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, have been punished for illegal land requisition cases, the Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR) and the Ministry of Supervision (MOS) announced here Friday.

According to the joint investigation by the two ministries, the county government was accused of illegally requisitioning farmland for construction projects and not compensating farmers according to lawful standards or defaulting compensation in several cases in2002 and 2003.

Meanwhile, the Zhouzhi County government was charged with forced demolition and illegally using police force in these cases, which led to clashes with farmers and even illegal detention of some farmers in opposition to land requisitions.

"That caused severe consequences in the society, and the local officials should claim the responsibility," the ministries said ina statement.

According to China's laws and regulations on land management and on disciplinary penalties for members of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Ni Guangtian, former magistrate of the Zhouzhi County government, was demoted; Zhang Wuping, former executive vice-magistrate, was ordered to resign; Ren Shengli, former vice-magistrate, was removed from the post; and Cai Xingyu, former assistant magistrate, was given an administrative warning.

Meanwhile, the Shaanxi provincial government ordered the county government to return the illegally-requisitioned farmland to farmers and pay them the delayed compensations.

The MLR and MOS vowed to further intensify the crackdown on illegal land requisition cases to safeguard farmers' legal rights and interests and to ensure a smooth implementation of the nation's macro-control policies over land management.

In fact, China has started the latest round in its campaign to rectify land use deals for construction projects during the past year as part of its efforts to protect its shrinking land resources and cool down the overheating economy.

According to the action plan approved by the Chinese government, seven government departments will join the nationwide campaign, which lasts until October this year.

The government departments include the MLR, MOS, State Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Construction, and Auditing Administration.

The campaign will focus on problems concerning the use of land and official approval of land use since last year, protection of basic farmland resources, the acquisition of farmland and the efforts by local governments to make up the loss of the farmland used for non-agriculture projects through land development projects.

Also high on the agenda are inspection of collection and use of the compensation fees for farmers involved in land development deals and their resettlement, and irregularities in public bidding and auction of land-use rights for commercial purpose.

Officials and developers who are found continuing to ignore the laws and policies on land- use deals and acquisition will be severely punished according to law.

The MLR said earlier in May that it conducted probes into 9,900illegal land requisition cases during the first quarter of this year in a nationwide crackdown on illegal use of land.

Source: Xinhua