Hearings should be called to guarantee procedural justice on proposed land appropriations that are part of plans to move a section of railway in Tainan underground, land rights campaigners said yesterday in a protest outside the Ministry of the Interior.
“We demand that Minister of the Interior Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) reject factional pressure from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and demonstrate his academic conscience and moral courage by holding administrative hearings on plans to move Tainan’s railway line to the east,” said Chen Chih-hsiao (陳致曉), spokesman for the self-help association of residents who would be affected by the Tainan City Government’s plans.
Residents say that the city’s plans include substantial and unnecessary appropriations, with Chen citing 11 points of contention and saying the city government has refused to provide dozens of official documents in response to the group’s demands.
While the city government has held several forums on its plans, campaigners say they failed to meet residents’ constitutional rights to procedural justice because city officials were not legally obliged to answer their inquiries.
Deputy Minister of the Interior Hua Ching-chun (花敬群), who chairs the Urban Planning Commission, said the body would continue to listen to the views of Tainan city officials, local residents and civic groups.
While they care most about the presentation of facts and evidence, reasonable procedures would be maintained, Hua said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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