Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1967-1968 — Page 22

Date for clearance

45. Any private land involved must be resumed, permits cancelled, petitions answered and compensation assessed before the land is cleared. It is necessary to ensure that development can start as soon as possible after clearance and demolition of the structures, so as to avoid letting the land lie idle, which might attract further squatting.

Availability of accommodation

46. Constant liaison with the Architectural Office of the Public Works Department ensures awareness of the numbers, capacity and completion dates of resettlement blocks under construction or being planned. To ease the economic burden on the people affected and the traffic load on the Colony's already crowded transport services, squatters are moved to the nearest available estate. Resettlement factory accom- modation must also be available at the time that factories are cleared. No area can be cleared until new resettlement accommodation is available to house the people affected.

Cultivation

47. If cultivated land is involved in the clearance a large-scale survey plan is prepared and with the assistance of other Government depart- ments the crops are valued and compensation paid. In addition to com- pensation, farmers or substantial pigbreeders cleared have in the past been eligible for shops in estates to provide them with an alternative form of livelihood. As most of the available shops are allocated as a first priority to shopkeepers who have been cleared, and as fewer shops are now available because blocks are sixteen instead of eight storeys high, there was until recently a long waiting list of cultivators and pig- breeders for shops in Hong Kong and Kowloon resettlement estates. In 1965 therefore it was decided that shops should no longer be allocated in these cases and monetary compensation has been paid instead. There is still a waiting list of those cleared before 1965 but this is gradually being cleared.

SCREENING AND CLEARANCE

48. After determining relative priorities, the sub-division draws up a fortnightly schedule of clearances for the information of the government departments and public utilities concerned. This schedule sets out the areas to be cleared and the estates in which the people will be resettled.

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