Samak: 1,300 rai has been reclaimed by govt
POST REPORTERS
Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej yesterday claimed success in regaining 1,300 rai of encroached land through the courts, saying it was a milestone for his government after only three months in office. Interior Minister Chalerm Yubamrung threatened to remove the governor of any province where forest cover is found to be shrinking due to encroachment. Undeterred by polls which show his popularity falling, Mr Samak appeared satisfied with the government's small success in battling the land encroachment problem.
''It is this government that has done something quickly,'' Mr Samak told officials who gathered at Government House to hear his policy briefing on tackling forest encroachment.
''We've worked for three months and the case was won, and we got the 1,300 rai of land back.''
However, there were 6,711 cases of forest encroachment involving 35,000 rai last year. And at least another 20,000 rai of land has been encroached on this year, according to the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry.
Mr Samak said a classic case of forest encroachment involves someone trespassing on the land and simply claiming it by getting bogus land documents.
Many areas were often mortgaged with banks and then sold on the market to other people.
Mr Samak told officials they must take more serious action against offenders. He warned that severe punishment would be handed out to those found to have accepted benefits to facilitate the illegal acquisition of land.
The Department of Special Investigation would be a key agency in handling legal disputes over the land, he said.
''Please keep me up to date on your work,'' he told the officials. ''If I'm still in the job, we will meet again this day next year, and you will be allowed to show off what you do.''
The interior minister echoed Mr Samak's comments, saying officials would be held responsible if they failed to curb deforestation.
''If forest areas decrease in a province, the governor will be seen as trying to challenge the power of the state and I'll get ready an inspector-general's chair for you,'' Mr Chalerm said. Senior officials view this post as a relatively passive job.
The minister said instances of forest encroachment were being investigated in Kanchanaburi, Phetchabun, Surat Thani, Phitsanulok and Kalasin _ provinces which were notorious for not stopping it.
''Local officials have three months to get the land back,'' he said.
Natural Resources and Environment Minister Anongwan Thepsutin said if logs seized during an arrest are worth more than one million baht, the responsible officials would be transferred out of their province.
Former deputy prime minister and economist Veerapong Ramangkul said past governments had failed to solve the problem for 20 years due to the lack of effective coordination between different agencies which enforce different laws
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