Justice needed in demolitions

A special advertisement was posted on a billboard by the side of a highway recently, blaming the government of Nanjing in Jiangsu province, for illegally demolishing a house. An article in Beijing News looked into the story behind the advertisement (excerpts below).

Billboards are generally used for commercial advertisements. However, on July 28, a special non-commercial advertisement attracted nationwide attention. Standing by the side of the subway, it read: "The local government demolished my house illegally; when will they pay compensation?"

Officials from Nanjing said that they demolished the house "mistakenly", not intentionally. However, in the same statement, they also said that they had intended to demolish the house, but that the compensation demanded by the owner was too high. That is self-contradictory. There are many cases of officials demolishing houses without the consent of the owners and they demand further investigation.

The details of the case show that the house owner filed a complaint to the State Bureau of Letters and Calls, but the local government cheated, saying they had already compensated the owner, something that never happened.

Recent reports confirm that the local government demolished the billboard on July 29. Can we make some systemic arrangements that do not force victims to defend their rights in such creative means? After all, so many people suffer from forced demolitions and not everybody can afford to rent a billboard.