Opponents of the phase-II development of Tamhai New Town (淡海新市鎮) yesterday asked the central government to evaluate the deal’s social and economic impact on the community and to hold a public hearing before setting the boundaries for the land seizure.
As the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) was scheduled to hold its fourth meeting on setting the boundaries of the development yesterday, dozens of residents of New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), environmental activists and Tamkang University students camped outside EPA headquarters beginning on Wednesday night, to appeal to the public on the issue.
They protested before the meeting started yesterday morning and demanded that members of the review board go over the details of the development deal line-by-line.
Photo: CNA
Lu Cheng-chung (盧正忠), who is with a group opposing the town’s further development, said they thought the EPA was helping the Ministry of Interior’s Construction and Planning Agency rush through the boundary-setting meetings to get them done in one day.
Lu said the proposed phase-II development would force more than 1,600 households to relocate. He added that the new development is unnecessary because there are still many unsold houses and underdeveloped properties within the boundaries of the phase-I development.
“The Construction and Planning Agency said that the land expropriated for the phase-II development would be used to build an eco-friendly city and a ‘paradise for elderly citizens,’ but we feel that our environment is already rich in terms of biodiversity,” Lu said. “It is really gratuitous to destroy the biodiversity and build an artificial eco-friendly city. The elderly people in the community are, on the other hand, happy and self-sufficient. They do not need to be relocated so that a ‘paradise’ can be built for them.”
Lu said the government has planned to seize about 1,200 hectares of land for the phase-II development, with most of the targeted area being farmland.
Ling Hong Ching-tze (林洪清子), who is in her 80s, said this was not the first time that the government has seized her property. She said that she was once asked to give up 661 hectares for a section of highway to be built, and was compensated with just NT$1.7 million (US$56,000 at current exchange rates).
She added that she has been approached again by developers because of the project.
She said she was told that she would have to swap a larger area of land for a smaller one and buy back the land that she owned.
“I am pretty content with the land I have now, which has natural water coming from Datunshan (大屯山),” she said. “How can I find the money to buy back the land? And I should not have to buy back land that is mine.”
Residents supporting the development responded with their own data, saying that 542 households would need to relocate.
Tamsui District Administrator Tsai Yeh-wei (蔡葉偉) said that about 157 hectares of land to be expropriated are fallow farmland, with no trees, endangered species or historical sites to be protected.
One woman held a poster bearing the signatures of other residents who support the proposed development. She said development is good for the community, since more than 70 percent of its young people have left town to seek jobs elsewhere.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
RSS