A plot of land whose owner wants to change its use status in Vĩnh Lôc B Commune in HCM City’s Bình Chánh District. VNS Photo Lê Thắng

HCM CITY — Eleven months after HCM City residents with farming lands were told they had to apply to change them into housing lands, thousands are still waiting to apply because the master plan for land use has not been ratified by relevant agencies yet.

A resident of Thủ Đức District, who asked not to be named, said he had been waiting since August 2018 to register his land in Linh Xuân Ward.

An official at the relevant agency in Thủ Đức said he could not accept the man’s application because the administration had not ratified the master plan for land use in the district.

A spokesman for Linh Xuân Ward said the local People’s Committee would receive instructions from the district People’s Committee in August.

In wards with large areas of agricultural lands such as Bình Chiểu and Linh Xuân, there are around 100 households waiting to change the land use purpose.

Several communes in the suburban district of Hóc Môn have more than 200 such households each.

While Thủ Đức and Hóc Môn are thought to have the largest numbers of such households, many people in other districts too are waiting anxiously.

A spokesman for the city Department of Natural Resources and Environment said district authorities were responsible for identifying lands to change their use and apprising local administrative units.

Relevant district agencies must specify the demands for land use by organisations and individuals, he said.

“Households and individuals must register the locations of their lands and size. Without [it, they] cannot change the land-use purposes”. — VNS