There has been a resurgence of violations in the use of land by local governments, according to a ranking official from the Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR). The message is that the central government still has a long way to go to check the urge of most local governments to rely on sales of land for their financial revenue.

The income from land sales was 2.7 trillion yuan nationwide in 2010, a record high and an increase of 70 percent year-on-year, and there were 53,000 cases of offences against laws on the use of land. Despite a 14.3-percent drop in total cases compared with previous year, the area of land involved increased by 1.1 percent

The MLR official said that it is difficult to hold local government leaders accountable for such offenses and hard to put a stop to such violations when key construction projects and use of land for construction purposes are involved.

If the country is to transform its development mode, which has been identified as the main target for the next five years, it is essential to control the selling of land by local governments.

Economic growth achieved by the selling of land and real estate development is simply not sustainable. The loss of arable land and the waste of resources in unnecessary construction projects sap the country's fundamental capability for further economic and social development and constitute a threat to food security.

The MLR has sent for a number of local government leaders to discuss their land-use misdemeanors. Yet, this is not a punishment and has proved futile at preventing local governments from flouting the law. To be exact, local government leaders may take it for granted that they can go ahead with their big projects without losing anything personally.

True, 239 offenders were arrested and will be dealt with according to law because of their role in the illegal use of land. But there is no way for us to know whether any of them are local government leaders. If there are always scapegoats for the offenses local government leaders have committed, it is really not as easy as officials claim to scratch where it really itches when it comes to illegal land sales.

Local government leaders must be made aware that making money should not be the primary target of their governance. They must learn how to balance the relationship between economic growth and improving the lives of local residents.

The transformation of the country's development mode won't be realized unless local government leaders are fully aware of the importance of sustainable development and give up the pursuit of making money from land sales.

To achieve this, local leaders need to pay the price for their illegal requisition and misuse of land.