Central Nghệ An Province’s Nghi Lộc District has asked provincial authorities to create jobs for unemployed residents who blocked traffic on the road leading to a nearby industrial zone early this week. — Photo vnexpress.net

NGHỆ AN – Central Nghệ An Province’s Nghi Lộc District has asked provincial authorities to create jobs for unemployed residents who blocked traffic on the road leading to a nearby industrial zone early this week.

Nghi Lộc People’s Committee deputy chairman Nguyễn Thanh Hải told the press yesterday morning that the traffic blockade was due to conflicts of economic interest between locals and coach businesses.

The traffic blockade started on Monday and reached its peak two days later, when about 100 people living in neighbourhoods 8, 9 and 11 flocked to provincial road 536 to stop coaches from driving workers to the Nam Cấm Industrial Park, said a Vietnam News Agency reporter who witnessed the scene.

The traffic disorder ended on Wednesday, with the arrival of police.

“After handing over their farmland for authorities to build the industrial park, most locals borrowed money to build more than 1,040 rental houses for industrial park workers,” Hải said. “Residents think their lease businesses were negatively affected because coaches drive workers from their homes to the industrial park.”  

In an announcement signed by representatives of the three neighbourhoods on June 10, residents said most people who do not meet requirements to work at Nam Cấm industrial park rely on rental business as their sole source of income.

Residents started handing out announcements to coach drivers on June 14, telling them to stop transporting workers to the industrial park within seven days or face “heavy consequences”.

Four people are in custody so far for the illegal traffic blockade, Nghi Lộc police chief Nguyễn Trọng Tuệ said yesterday. – VNS