Better supervision is necessary to safeguard land, says an article in Yanzhao Metropolis News. The following is an excerpt:

The Ministry of Land and Resources and the Ministry of Supervision publicized the results of their joint inspections, citing 10 cases of major violations in land acquisition.

One of the most widely reported cases occurred in Kaiping county, Guangdong Province, where leaders of the local government were stripped of their Party and government posts for illegally approving about 2,000 hectares of farmland for industrial use.

The punishment meted out to the officials could be the most severe one for illegal land use.

Besides applauding the upholding of justice, we should also learn some lessons from the case. The area of illegally approved land - 2,000 hectares - is large compared to the area of the county. But the approval was not stopped even when the national campaign against illegal land use was on. The local officials made false reports about land use when inspection teams from the central and provincial governments visited them.

The illegal land use in Kaiping was supported not only by the department of land and resources, but also the heads of the city government, which made it easy for them to cover it up.

It is therefore necessary to enhance the supervision of local governments, at least in respect to land use approval. It is also necessary to improve the current rules and regulations pertaining to land use to plug the possible loopholes.

The officials in Kaiping violated the rules because they wanted to enhance their professional achievements or to make profits for themselves. But more importantly, they did not feel a pressure from strong supervision. Such supervision should be given to specialists and the public. It is necessary to motivate all factors to watch over our precious land resource.

(China Daily December 13, 2007)