A shrimp breeder in Thua Thien-Hue Province has filed a suit against district authorities for forcing him to destroy his stocks two years ago due to an erroneous conclusion his shrimp spread disease.
However, they claim he moved the shrimp to another place and did not destroy them.
Nguyen Xuan Hoa of Phu Loc District wants damages of VND3.6 billion (US$175,000) from the district People’s Committee.
In his complaint to the Phu Loc District People’s Court, he said he had raised black tiger shrimp and white-legged shrimp on two hectares of land in June 2009.
In July that year the Committee had fined him VND3 million (US$1,450) for alleged violations of shrimp-breeding regulations.
A month later, the Committee forced him to destroy his stocks saying his white-legged shrimp had spread diseases to other varieties of shrimp in the district and damaged the environment.
Hoa had lodged a complaint with the province People’s Committee.
A year later it had issued a decision saying the district committee was wrong to fine Hoa and force him to destroy his shrimp.
It had also ordered the district authorities to revoke their decision and recompense Hoa in accordance with the Law on State Compensation Responsibility.
But last month the Phu Loc People’s Committee refused to pay the compensation, claiming Hoa never destroyed the shrimp.
Nguyen Thanh Ha, its chairman, told Tuoi Tre: “When we told Hoa to destroy his shrimp, we did not know how many he raised. Hoa actually moved all the shrimp out before the decision could be executed. Therefore, it caused him no loss.”