Society

Illegal villas belong to once-imprisoned former official

By Wang Hongyi (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-19 08:03

SHANGHAI - The owner of the two luxury villas illegally constructed on a reservoir's dam in Jiangsu province's Zhenjiang has been determined to be a former local district governor who had served prison time for corruption.

The villas were forcibly demolished on July 7, Xinhua News Agency reported on Sunday.

Earlier reports had said a section of the dam of the Xishan reservoir, the only nationally registered reservoir in Zhenjiang's Jingkou district, was lowered by about 1.5 meters to make space for the villas' construction, raising flood threats. Each villa was about 400 sq m.

The property rights of the two illegal buildings atop the dam belonged to the Qiaolaoye Culture Development Co. Qiaolaoye's general manager is Shen Kezhang, who was once Jingkou district's chief, the report said.

In 2001, Shen was sentenced to two years in prison for bribing the district's Party secretary Qin Guanghua and his wife, and for embezzling 500,000 yuan for Qin's wife's personal use. Shen set up the company after his release from prison.

According to Jingkou district government, Qiaolaoye signed a 30-year tenancy agreement on the reservoir's Xin'an pool with the Xishan reservoir administrative office in August 2007.

In December 2008, the company applied in the Xishan reservoir administrative office's name to build a reservoir management building atop the dam. It received the construction-planning permit from local authorities, but the property rights belonged to the company.

The permit states the building must be a temporary structure with a one-year time limit, and should be a single-story brick and concrete building with an area of 1,092 sq m.

It must be demolished when a national construction project is planned on the site. However, a two-story building was constructed atop the dam, and the site is outside of the scope of planning.

Authorities in Jingkou district had already ordered a rectification of buildings on the dam in June 2009. But the villas remained, and the dam was even lowered by 1.5 meters to create space for the villas' construction.

Zhang Jian, an official with the Jingkou water conservancy bureau, said the water departments' staff had repeatedly called for the immediate halt of construction but were interrupted by builders on the site.

Officials from the local housing construction bureau said the temporary management buildings' approval had expired, and the construction of the two villas also violated flood-control laws, making them illegal buildings.

The villas have been demolished, but relevant local departments said they are continuing to investigate. They are especially looking into the question of how the company could apply to construct temporary buildings under the Xishan reservoir management office's name.