As the famous quote goes…’home is where heart is.’, This phrase lies true for people forced to give up their homes under tragic or unavoidable circumstances. One such instance happened when some Chinese home owners had to leave their five storey home which stood in the middle of the road. The householders complained that they were offered unfair compensation. The village chief Chen Xuecai however said that the house was bulldozed earlier after its owners, duck farmer Luo Baogen and his wife, agreed to accept compensation of 260,000 yuan (£26,000).
Some time back the neighborhood was demolished to make way for the main road heading to a newly built railway station on the outskirts of the city of Wenling, in Zhejiang province. The images of the house were circulated widely online in China instigating widespread fury and disparity among the masses. The topic was also brought in attention through domestic and foreign media reports about the latest “nail house,” as buildings that remain standing as their owners resist development are called.
Mr Luo, 67, had just acquired this house at a cost of about 600,000 yuan (£60,000) when the government approached him with their standard offer of 220,000 (£22,000) to move out – which he refused, Chen has previously said. The offer then went up to 260,000 yuan last week.
Property is one of the big drivers of China’s runaway growth in recent decades In Mr Luo’s case has brought some harsh realities of china to the fore .In order to pressurize residents to accept petty compensation, authorities resort to extreme measures, such as cutting off utilities or moving in to demolish when residents are out for the day. Today the country is on the path of development which has its own pitfalls as it has led to demolishing of many existing houses and has run into objections from many of the hundreds of thousands of residents who have been forced out to make way for new housing, factories and other business ventures, creating a major state of unrest. [SOURCE: theatlantic.com]
