With the guiding principle of “people know, people discuss, people implement and people supervise”, localities across the province have actively rolled out plans for merging villages, hamlets together with residential quarters, while intensifying communication and public outreach through diverse approaches to build consensus, solidarity alongside support for restructuring policy.

Ea Kar commune has a large population scale, with 21,264 households and nearly 88,500 residents from 27 ethnic groups. The commune currently comprises 81 villages combined with 17 ethnic minority hamlets.

To implement restructuring and merger policy in compliance with regulations while maintaining public consensus coupled with community cohesion, the commune established a survey team tasked with collecting data, assessing current conditions and proposing merger plans in accordance with regulations. The commune’s steering committee has proposed reducing the number of villages along with hamlets to 36 units, including 27 villages and nine hamlets, a reduction of 62 units.

Residents of Cu Ni 5 Village in Ea Kar Commune voting to approve the village merger plan.

According to comrade Nguyen Minh Chuyen, Deputy Secretary of Ea Kar Commune Party Committee, Chairman of Commune People’s Committee and Head of Steering Committee, development of merger schemes must not be imposed mechanically but should instead uphold democratic principles. Historical factors, natural boundaries, customs as well as practices, particularly traditional cultural values of local ethnic minority communities, are carefully considered to ensure mergers both expand development space and preserve cultural identity.

To ensure implementation progress, representatives from Party committees, self-governing boards alongside Fatherland Front committees in villages together with hamlets across Ea Kar commune have gone “door to door” to conduct outreach activities, explain policy details and distribute public consultation forms. Comrade Nguyen Dinh Thanh, Secretary of Hung Long Village Party Cell, said that before collecting public opinions on merger plans, Party cells, self-governing boards together with Fatherland Front committees discussed alongside unified viewpoints, implementation methods and specific plans. Afterwards, consultation forms were delivered to every household, accompanied by detailed explanations combined with guidance on how to complete them.

Self-governing board of Hung Long Village in Ea Kar Commune, together with members of residential clusters, distributing consultation forms, providing guidance and collecting public opinions on the merger of villages along with hamlets.

Similarly, Ea Knop commune currently has 40 villages and five ethnic minority hamlets, with a population of 37,368 people from 24 ethnic groups. Based on geographical conditions, customs, demographic characteristics as well as residents’ aspirations, the commune has developed a restructuring plan reducing the number of villages and hamlets to 22 units. In order to build broad consensus, Ea Knop commune organised five communication conferences focusing on key contents relating to organisation coupled with operation of villages and residential quarters, together with policies along with benefits for part-time grassroots personnel. Simultaneously, the commune intensified communication through public loudspeaker systems, social media platforms, information channels operated by Public Service Supply Centre, direct outreach activities, alongside integration into meetings and community gatherings.

According to comrade Le Anh Vu, Deputy Secretary of Ea Knop Commune Party Committee, Chairman of Commune People’s Committee and Head of Steering Committee, communication activities have maximised creativity as well as flexibility through diverse approaches tailored to different groups of residents. The commune has also promoted roles played by officials, Party members, reputable community figures and grassroots cadres. To organise public consultations, Ea Knop commune held community conferences chaired by commune leaders with participation from Vietnam Fatherland Front together with mass organisations to clearly explain necessity, objectives, significance combined with benefits of merger policy. For households unable to attend meetings, village heads and heads of Fatherland Front working committees delivered consultation forms directly to their homes.

Translated by HAI LOAN