New policy should ease forced home demolitions
By Ni Yinbin |
April 10, 2012, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA'S supreme court will strictly limit approvals of forced demolitions that make residents relocate, especially in cases where the compensation offered is unfair and hurts the public interest, according to a judicial explanation issued by the court yesterday.
The explanation is expected to ease disputes across the country when reluctant residents are forced to move out, experts said. Sun Jungong, spokesman of the Supreme People's Court, said the policy will increase protections for the owners of houses.
Inhumane forced demolition of residents' houses has been reported across the country for years, leaving many residents homeless.
In a recent case, several houses in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, were illegally demolished by force, according to the People's Daily yesterday. The relocation in Yaojialing started last April and involved nearly 20,000 people and 2,164 houses. The compensation plan was not supported by most of the households there.
"The authority only promises us newly built houses but without extra cash compensation," said Yin Jinfeng, whose house was demolished when she was not around.
Yin said the authority agreed only to a small amount of cash compensation if the relocated house was smaller than the demolished house. But home prices around the demolition area had reached 15,000 yuan (US$2,378) per square meter, the newspaper reported - presumably much more than where the people were to be settled in new homes.
The relocation contract contained no detailed information about the newly built houses that were promised to residents.
"The agreement doesn't say when and where they will put us in our new houses. We don't even know what they look like! They're like castles in the air," resident Xiao Linfang told the People's Daily. "We don't sign the contract because it guarantees nothing."
The explanation is expected to ease disputes across the country when reluctant residents are forced to move out, experts said. Sun Jungong, spokesman of the Supreme People's Court, said the policy will increase protections for the owners of houses.
Inhumane forced demolition of residents' houses has been reported across the country for years, leaving many residents homeless.
In a recent case, several houses in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, were illegally demolished by force, according to the People's Daily yesterday. The relocation in Yaojialing started last April and involved nearly 20,000 people and 2,164 houses. The compensation plan was not supported by most of the households there.
"The authority only promises us newly built houses but without extra cash compensation," said Yin Jinfeng, whose house was demolished when she was not around.
Yin said the authority agreed only to a small amount of cash compensation if the relocated house was smaller than the demolished house. But home prices around the demolition area had reached 15,000 yuan (US$2,378) per square meter, the newspaper reported - presumably much more than where the people were to be settled in new homes.
The relocation contract contained no detailed information about the newly built houses that were promised to residents.
"The agreement doesn't say when and where they will put us in our new houses. We don't even know what they look like! They're like castles in the air," resident Xiao Linfang told the People's Daily. "We don't sign the contract because it guarantees nothing."
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