Lower-level administrations have been ordered to prosecute a minimum number of unlawful land-use cases this year after reports that more than 90 per cent of local government-backed land deals in some areas are illegal.
The Ministry of Land and Resources said a survey of 15 cities indicated at least 60 per cent of the land developed in metropolitan areas since September 2004 had either been illegally obtained or used, while in other cases the proportion was higher than 90 per cent.
The findings correspond to a similar survey conducted last year of land developed between October 2003 and September 2004, according to Xinhua.
The ministry said soaring fixed-asset investment this year had created a huge demand for land. 'Large volumes of investment are ending up in land, and a considerable number of projects use land that has been unlawfully acquired. Almost all serious land irregularities are linked to local governments,' the ministry said on its website.
Zhang Xinbao, director of the ministry's supervision bureau, said more than 1 million cases involving land-related irregularities had built up between 1999, when the national Land Administration Law took effect, and last year.
The ministry said local governments often changed land-use plans at will, and paid insufficient compensation or delayed payments to farmers who had lost their land.