Villagers live in shacks after demolition

By Jane Chen | May 25, 2010, Tuesday |

Online Edition

VILLAGERS in north China are sheltering in tents and makeshift shacks after more than 1,000 homes were demolished in 10 days in a 2-billion-yuan (US$292 million) urban reconstruction project.

Li Yunde and her husband are living in a 10-square-meter tent pitched on the ruins of their destroyed home in Guangping County of Hebei Province's Handan City. Their children are staying with relatives outside the village, today's Beijing Times newspaper reported.

Li said the government demolished her five-room house of 290 square meters shortly after issuing a removal notice for an urban construction project to upgrade 10 key roads and add 1 million square meters of green spaces in the county.

The government also confiscated her 2,000 square meters of farming land.

Without any negotiation or agreement for the land use, the government offered her 90,000 yuan as compensation, she told the newspaper.

But the money is hardly enough to afford another home and she had to pitch a tent to shelter in, she said.

Like Li, another 1,000 families had their houses demolished between March 18 and 28. They were offered compensation for their homes at around 400 yuan per square meter, compared with the new home prices around 1,500 yuan in Guangping.

The demolition was fast because the government didn't sign any agreements with the residents concerning demolition and compensation, according to Zhao Fenghe, director of Guangping Housing and Urban Planning Commission.

To solve problems for the homeless residents, the government plans to build hundreds of homes and sell them at 900 yuan a square meter to the residents, according to Wang Weiyu, administrative office dean of Guangping County government.

But it's unknown when the construction will begin.

The State Council has issued an emergency document banning local governments from forcing land use. It also urged local governments to publish compensation standards for land use by the end of June.

The Ministry of Land and Resources and the Ministry of Supervision yesterday published a list of 16 city governments which occupied 610,000 mu of land without getting proper licenses.

Nation

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Villagers live in shacks after demolition

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