Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Development, Mrs Carrie Lam, today (April 17) on unauthorised building works at New Territories Exempted Houses:
Reporter: Why can't the Government allow villagers to pay land premium instead of removing the illegal structures? What is your response to some comments that the current policy will affect social harmony?
Secretary for Development: The main objective of our work in dealing with the unauthorised building works in the New Territories (NT) is to enforce the law. Because one of the core values of Hong Kong is the rule of law, any suggestion that instead of doing enforcement, the government should collect a fee, is not in line with the rule of law. But having said that, we are very pragmatic. We realised that over the years, there is this huge amount of unauthorised building works in the NT village houses. That's why we have devised this scheme, which tried to tackle the issue according to several categorisations. We are only undertaking enforcement action against those really very serious breaches of the Buildings Ordinance.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Issued at HKT 21:35
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