Can't stop bleeding in farmland? Six factories in Yunlin and Changhua have not yet been demolished

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Combined with the inter-ministerial meeting groups such as the Council of Agriculture and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the demarcation of illegal factories on agricultural land was made on May 20 last year, and March this year was set as the deadline for demolition. After the first wave of illegal list was published, various local governments carried out the demolition work one after another. Seeing that the final bottom line will be exceeded within a week, 6 of the 17 factories are still undemolished, and the life of the violation may be extended indefinitely. The ring delegation held a press conference today, calling on the relevant departments to complete the demolition as soon as possible, and at the same time set out an adequate budget and full-time staff to handle the case, so as not to let the slogan "report and tear down" break.

The ring delegation jointly held a press conference to ask the county and municipal government to demolish farmland and illegal buildings (Photo / Kong Delian)

The difference in legislative density highlights the different attitudes of local governments in the face of violations of regulations.

In terms of the legal system, Guo Hongyi, a full-time lawyer for the Environmental Rights Protection Foundation, said that the existing laws and regulations range from flexible practices such as tutoring and time limit improvement to temporary factory registration, to tough practices such as water and power cuts, fines, and forced demolition, but they have not been implemented.

Why did the problem arise? Guo Hongyi believes that the power and responsibility for dealing with violations rests with local governments, and it is all the more necessary to focus on local laws and regulations. From the perspective of the laws and regulations dealing with illegal factories on agricultural land, they can be divided into two aspects, namely, "relevant laws and regulations on unregistered factories" and "violation of relevant laws and regulations on land use, construction and management". In the part of unlisted factories, the legislative density of local governments in Taiwan is very weak, and many counties and cities do not have relevant laws and regulations to deal with. Even if we look at the handling of illegal factories from the perspective of "illegal construction," the intensity of autonomous regulations varies in different places, and some even have counseling methods, which highlights "the very different attitudes of counties and municipal governments in dealing with violations."

To deal with violations, three major demands are put forward according to the time schedule: manpower, report and demolition, and treatment of medium and high pollution first.

Therefore, before the growing problem of illegal factories on agricultural land, Tang Linxiang believes that all ministries should participate in the joint survey and enforcement of violations of agricultural land, and at the same time adjust the allocation of manpower, increase the number of people to check and report, and normalize the business of illegal factories. Wu Qirong suggested that the central government should set up a special legal person to handle illegal business, and local agricultural authorities should also face it together, and at the same time, environmental protection, water conservancy, and agricultural units should be included in the participation. in order to improve the efficiency of dealing with violations.

How to establish a normal and systematic violation mechanism is the focus of the current round-the-world regiment, and finally various groups also put forward three demands. It includes the implementation of the 520 policy of report and demolition, which should not be dismantled in violation of regulations due to the delay of the election; all local governments are required to draw up adequate budgets and set a quota of inspection personnel at the two Municipal councils of Agriculture and the Economic Development Bureau, and all ministries will coordinate joint inspection manpower; and the Ministry of Economic Affairs will immediately stop the illegal factory counseling program and give priority to the resettlement, relocation and demolition of medium-and high-pollution factories.

In this regard, Chen Ruibin concluded that even 15 or 20 years of model farmland will be destroyed once by pollution; in an era when corporate social responsibility (CSR) is increasingly valued, pollution not only brings food safety problems, but also affects manufacturing exports that lack proper production conditions, so the government should face the problem as soon as possible and not let the crisis spread.

Committee of Agriculture: without demolition, the inter-ministry meeting will immediately discuss extending a helping hand to the local authorities.

In the face of calls from environmental protection groups, Tsai Ching-fu, director of the Planning Office of the Council of Agriculture, said bluntly that the inter-ministerial group would take an encouraging position and urge local governments to carry out the removal of violations. after all, such progress has been made only once in more than a decade or two. If the demolition is not completed within the time limit, the inter-ministry meeting will hold another meeting to provide the necessary local manpower to complete the work, and then a second wave of demolition list will be put forward in the hope that "step by step" is the key point.

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