Chapter 2210

In addition, although the state would bear the majority of the subsidies, a considerable portion of the costs for relocating and building towns would still be borne by local governments, and this sum of money was also an astronomical figure.

Coupled with the fact that local governments also had to undertake the work of persuading the migrants, the difficulty of this task was also exceptionally high.

In the area where land was reclaimed from Yanglan Lake, a jingle circulated: "Little work in the fields, repairing the embankment every year; nine waters shoot into Yanglan, two disasters every three years." This jingle vividly depicted the bitterness of the people in the reclaimed area. Yes, in such a place, the terrain was low-lying, even more than twenty meters lower than the standard water level of Yanglan Lake; as long as there was heavy rain, it would inevitably lead to disaster.

However, a jingle is just a jingle, and bitterness is just bitterness, but if the migrants were asked to leave this place and move to a strange place to build towns and live, they would still be reluctant.

"It is hard to leave one's native land"—this phrase is not empty talk, but the national character of the Chinese people for thousands of years. Having lived in one place for decades, it is truly not easy to want to leave.

Moreover, after leaving here and going to a new place, their livelihood would be a problem, which was also something that gave local governments a headache.

If they went to other rural areas, how would the land be distributed? Should the original residents redistribute the land? How would the original residents be willing? Their average land would decrease, and the migrants' average land would also be much less than before; the final result would be that no one was satisfied.

If they went to the urban area, the cost of relocating and building towns would be high, and the migrants' livelihoods would still be unsolvable. For tens of thousands of migrants in one place, wanting to arrange employment for all of them was a difficulty no less than ascending to heaven!

In short, the difficulty of this work was great and it was hard to handle. The provincial leaders had quite a few complaints, but this dissatisfaction could only be kept in their hearts. This time, the Party Central Committee's determination was great, and the price paid was not insignificant; the state would bear the majority of the costs for relocating and building towns, which was a huge sum of money counted in the billions.

Of course, if this work could be successful, the benefits would be self-evident. Jiangyou Province was one of the regions most severely affected by floods every time. The main reason for this was, of course, the reclamation of land from the lake, which reduced the area in Jiangyou Province that could be used for flood diversion and storage by more than 1,000 square kilometers. This was a large number.

Precisely because of this reason, Jiangyou Province had to fight floods and provide disaster relief almost every year. Not only did every flood cause huge property losses, but fighting floods and providing disaster relief also required consuming great manpower and material resources. Once these were calculated, the costs of relocating and building towns were not much.

This year's flood, Jiangyou Province's direct economic losses would reach at least several billion or even tens of billions, and indirect economic losses were countless. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of early rice in dozens of major rice-producing counties were nearly wiped out. Such loss figures were simply shocking.

Jiangyou Province was not wealthy to begin with, and having suffered such losses this time, the post-disaster reconstruction work could truly be described as a long and arduous journey!

If the work of returning farmland to lakes and relocating residents to build towns was done well, perhaps such major floods would never happen again in the future. Just this aspect alone could save a large amount of funds. Calculated this way, no matter how much this work cost, it was worth it!

Ke Zhifang, on behalf of the Jiangyou Provincial Government, expressed his determination to Premier Nan. He stated that the Jiangyou Provincial Government would definitely complete the task of returning farmland to lakes assigned by the Party Central Committee as soon as possible without any compromise.

Ke Zhifang's attitude made Premier Nan very satisfied. After he ended the meeting, he asked Ke Zhifang to take him to the hospital.

Ke Zhifang took Premier Nan to the Provincial People's Hospital. On the way, Xie Shuchen called Su Xinghui and asked him to wait in the ward. Therefore, when Premier Nan arrived at the hospital, Su Xinghui was already waiting in the ward, with only Lu Xiaoya by his side.

Premier Nan kindly visited Su Xinghui. He asked how Su Xinghui's health was. Su Xinghui said that he was better now and that he could be discharged today and return to Chongjin County.

Premier Nan told Su Xinghui that he must take good care of his health and not be in a hurry to return to his post. Su Xinghui also thanked Premier Nan for his concern.

The accompanying reporters filmed all of this, and this scene would also be broadcast on the News Simulcast. In the past few days, Su Xinghui had also become a hero of this flood fight, and many viewers hoped to see more of his recent situation.

After the consolation, Premier Nan asked his entourage to leave the ward, leaving only Ke Zhifang and the couple Su Xinghui and his wife, and even the door was closed.

Premier Nan smiled and said, "Comrade Xinghui, the Party Central Committee has decided to implement the return of farmland to lakes."

In fact, Su Xinghui had already seen this news on TV two days ago. At that time, Premier Nan was inspecting another province, where he held a meeting and had already announced this news, which made Su Xinghui very happy.

However, now that Premier Nan had told him about this in person, Su Xinghui naturally still had to act very surprised and said, "Is that so? That's really great, Premier!"

Premier Nan said, "Then after you are discharged this time, you must focus on the work of returning farmland to lakes and relocating residents to build towns. You must do this work well. I hope that your Chongjin County can become a model county for the work of returning farmland to lakes and relocating residents to build towns."

Su Xinghui nodded solemnly and said, "Premier, please rest assured, I will definitely do this work well."

Premier Nan said, "The reason why you were chosen as a model is also because you were already mentally prepared for this work before. I think you should be able to do it well. However, in terms of policy, the state will not give any tilt to your county. Do you have any opinions?"

Su Xinghui shook his head and said, "No opinion. If it can only be done well by relying on the state's policy tilt, then it is not worthy of being a model."

Premier Nan smiled and said, "That's good. Can you tell me your train of thought?"

After Su Xinghui organized his thoughts, he said, "Premier, the area of land reclaimed from the lake in our Chongjin County is about 100 square kilometers, involving a population of about 50,000. I plan to relocate them all to the new district of Chongjin County."

Premier Nan was a little surprised: "So many people, you are arranging them all to the new district? Can it accommodate them?"

Su Xinghui said, "The new district in our county, you also saw it when you went there last time. There are quite a few real estate developers developing commercial housing and affordable housing there. It is expected that by the end of this year, about 1 million square meters of housing will be completed. By then, these 50,000 people can be completely settled."

Premier Nan calculated: 50,000 people, 1 million square meters of housing, which is an average of 20 square meters per person. This is indeed enough to live in. Although it is not as spacious as in the countryside, it is, after all, living in the city.

And the subsidy standard set by the state this year is about 20,000 yuan per household. Coupled with the local government's subsidy, if this money is used to buy affordable housing, it is almost enough. If they want to live in commercial housing, they have to add some money.

Last time, Premier Nan heard Su Xinghui say that since the end of last year, the vast majority of the migrant workers for the embankment renovation project in Chongjin County were local farmers. These farmers earned a good amount of wages, and coupled with the subsidies for flood fighting and emergency rescue this year, if these farmers took out all this money, they could afford to buy commercial housing.

Now the price of commercial housing in Chongjin County is only 400 to 500 yuan per square meter, which is not expensive.

Premier Nan smiled and said, "Comrade Xinghui, it turns out you had already made plans for returning farmland to lakes and relocating residents to build towns?"

Su Xinghui also laughed: "If I hadn't made these plans, who would I be building so many houses for?"

Premier Nan said, "You are truly far-sighted. However, I am a little curious: if the Party Central Committee had not passed this policy of returning farmland to lakes this year, who would you have sold so many houses to? If you couldn't sell them, wouldn't they have been stuck in your hands?"

Su Xinghui said, "Then I wouldn't be afraid. Our Chongjin County seat also has more than 50,000 people, and many people also need to improve their housing conditions. Plus, there are so many enterprises in the Economic Development Zone. Don't so many enterprises need to recruit workers? After recruiting workers, those workers have money, and of course, they also need to buy houses. Besides, even if they can't be sold for the time being, just let them sit there. These houses didn't cost much money."