Rural demolition should respect the wishes of farmers

Zhu Yaoyin, deputy director of the Department of Grass-roots political Power and Community Construction of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said in Beijing on the 2nd that the Central No. 1 document repeatedly stressed that the demolition of rural settlements and the withdrawal and merger of villages must respect the wishes of farmers and with the consent of the villagers. Farmers cannot be forced to move and live upstairs, so as to avoid large-scale withdrawal and merger of villages and large-scale demolition and construction.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs held a press conference on the theme of deepening the pilot work of rural community construction in Beijing on the same day. Zhu Yaoyin made the above remarks in response to a reporter's question about the problems of large-scale demolition and construction in individual rural areas in the process of construction.

Zhu Yaoyin said: large-scale demolition and construction goes against the will of farmers, against the law of village evolution, and against the objective law of urbanization development. There are three blindness: one is to withdraw the village blindly and live together. The second is to blindly force farmers to live in concentration. The third is the blind use of non-agricultural land.

He said that large-scale demolition and construction is not conducive to the legitimate rights and interests of farmers, to the sustainable development of rural areas, and to the healthy promotion of a new type of urbanization. The attitude of the Central Committee has always been unequivocal opposition to such acts of demolition and large-scale construction against the will of rural residents.

Zhu Yaoyin said: at the central urbanization work conference, General Secretary Xi Jinping particularly stressed that in promoting the integrated development of urban and rural areas, attention should be paid to preserving the original style and features of villages and improving the living conditions of residents in the original village form as far as possible. With regard to the act of large-scale demolition and construction forcing farmers to go upstairs, the attitude of the Ministry of Civil Affairs is also very clear and firmly opposes the simple understanding of rural community construction as withdrawing villages and living together.

On April 15 this year, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the "guidance on deepening the pilot work of Rural Community Construction". One of the important purposes of issuing the "guidance" is to clarify the idea that rural community construction is simply equated with "farmers going upstairs", and to demolish and build large-scale demolition and construction in the name of rural community construction that exist in some places. The situation of forcing farmers to go upstairs is corrected.

The "guidance" clearly states that "it is strictly forbidden to force large-scale demolition and construction, to withdraw villages and live together, to change the use of agricultural land without authorization in violation of land use planning, and to replace village party organizations and villagers' committees with" management committees "and other organizations." The rural community construction is simply equated with the understanding and practice of farmers going upstairs, ignoring the rich connotation of rural community construction, and narrowly understanding the rural community construction as the urban community of the living form of rural residents.

The guidance defines the basic principle of "connecting urban and rural areas and highlighting characteristics", which requires that "we should not only pay attention to using cities to lead townships, promoting cities by townships, complementary advantages and common improvement, but also attach importance to local flavor, reflect rural characteristics, and preserve rural features." In other words, we should not only use the useful experience of urban community construction for reference, but also not simply copy the operation mode of urban community construction.