Finding those responsible for illegal villas

One-meter-tall bushes are seen atop a 26-story building in downtown Beijing on April 22, 2015. The building came into the spotlight two years ago, when it was discovered that a luxury illegal villa was built on its roof by a top-floor resident. Zhang Biqing, the man who had the villa built, tore it down when confronted by local law enforcement. [Photo: people.cn]

Residents in a vila residential community in Laishui in North China's Hebei province complain their life has been seriously disturbed by frequent explosions in the nearby mountains since April. Some real estate developers are landscaping the mountains so they can build new villas. Both the intended new development and the existing villas do not have the proper licenses. Beijing Times commented on Tuesday.

The explosions are so violent that some villas in the community have been damaged, and the residents said the blasts feels like an earthquake.

But were it not for the homeowners' complaints, the illegal villas and the plan to build more would not have been known to the public or the administrative authorities.

The central government banned the building of such villas in 2003. But the villa community was built in 2009, and the blasting in the mountains is to prepare land for more.

The Hebei provincial environmental protection bureau, and relevant governmental departments in the province related to commercial housing development do not have any files on the construction of the community or any environmental impact assessment reports.

The county's planning bureau has also said the land on which the villas were built should not have been developed as it is situated near a national geological park. This constitutes a violation of the rules on the protection of such conservation areas and the relevant civil construction rules.

The government supervisory officials must not sit idle in their offices any more. First of all, they should suspend the blasting in the mountains, because it is damaging the natural environment. Then, they must investigate who in the local government gave the green light to the project or have been fearless in not doing their legally bound duties.

If the well-made rules and laws are not enforced, they will become toothless, weaken the government, and damage the public's interests.