Different tunes between central and local governments on demolishing illegal structures on farmland? Council of Agriculture: absolutely confident of resolving it
Is the dilemma over demolishing illegal factories playing out all over again? Regarding the portion of structures occupying farmland, the Executive Yuan declared this year that it would use 520 as the cutoff line, with all newly added illegal factories demolished, and with the Council of Agriculture leading the effort, in order to resolve the friction between the central and local governments. However, as the farmland inventory results come out and demolition work is to proceed according to plan, yesterday Changhua County Magistrate Wei Ming-ku stressed the "five noes and one absolute" during interpellation at the county council, namely that if a factory does not pollute farmland, does not pollute rivers, does not pollute the air, does not affect public safety, and does not evade taxes, the Changhua County Government will move toward on-site guidance, adding a variable to policy implementation.
Changhua County Magistrate: illegal factories cannot be forcibly demolished
Should the demolition of illegal factories be carried out in coordination with the central government? Several DPP county councilors raised doubts at the council yesterday. Lin Shih-chien pointed out that even though the policy of using farmland for agriculture is currently being promoted, many water hardware businesses are clustered around the "Dingfanpo" area of Changhua, mostly using farmland to build factories, and that forced demolition would not only trigger backlash but also harm Taiwan's economic development.
In response, Changhua County Magistrate Wei Ming-ku said that Changhua County is the "homeland" of small and medium-sized enterprises, and that Changhua County has a small land area, so it cannot plan only large areas of farmland while ignoring the demand for industrial land; if illegal factories are forcibly demolished without supporting measures, it will likely cause enormous controversy and public resentment.
Therefore, he also proposed the "five noes and one absolute" principle as a priority task, including that for existing illegal factories, as long as they do not pollute farmland, do not pollute rivers, do not pollute the air, do not affect public safety, and do not evade taxes, the Changhua County Government will move toward on-site guidance; in addition, there is also a "one absolute" guarantee, namely that farmland factories will absolutely never appear again, and the central government should pay attention to the voices of local governments.
Scholar Hsu Shih-jung: "The government is a despicable two-faced actor"
However, Changhua County's response also drew criticism from scholars. Hsu Shih-jung, a professor in the Department of Land Economics at National Chengchi University, publicly stated that "the government is a despicable two-faced actor": when land expropriation is to be carried out, in the face of the socially disadvantaged, local governments strictly enforce the law, as in the case of the fourth phase of the Central Taiwan Science Park; but when facing illegal factories on farmland, they again raise the great banner of economic development, sparing no effort to defend them.
Council of Agriculture Deputy Minister: absolutely confident of resolving it
As for whether local backlash will affect policy implementation, Council of Agriculture Deputy Minister Chen Chi-chung stressed in an interview today that "there is no need to worry; we will communicate with local governments from a cross-ministerial perspective." He said the Council of Agriculture will view the issue from the perspective of farmland protection, and that through on-site surveys and comparison with aerial photography data, it was found that there are a total of 286 change points nationwide, representing newly built structures; after further confirmation, 34 should be demolished, and Changhua accounts for 14 of them.
In addition, after the cabinet's total resignation, the Executive Yuan is under the control of William Lai; will this affect the existing policy of using farmland for agriculture? Chen Chi-chung also stressed that he will communicate with the premier, and is absolutely confident of resolving the problem. As long as farmland is of good quality, it should be preserved; if land is polluted, or is heavy-metal-polluted farmland located among clustered factories, then it does not necessarily all have to be kept for agricultural use; instead, he would hope to designate it according to the current situation, which would also be positive for industrial development.
