Deadline for owners to upgrade their deeds
SUPAPONG CHAOLAN
SURAT THANI : The holders of Sor Khor 1 land rights documents for about 5,000 land plots on Samui island have been given until Feb 6, 2010, to have their documents upgraded to title deeds as authorities try to end the rise in land encroachment on the resort island. Deputy Interior Minister Sitthichai Kowsurat said Sor Khor land rights documents for about 5,000 plots of land on Samui island have not yet been verified.
Unlike title deeds, the Sor Khor document only certifies land utilisation, not ownership.
He urged the holders of these documents to urgently verify their land claims and have their documents upgraded to title deeds before Feb 6, 2010. After the deadline, they had to reclaim their rights in court, said Mr Sitthichai, who oversees the Land Department.
Officials started surveying land documents on Samui island after massive encroachment on forest and public land.
He said the skyrocketing prices of land had fuelled forest encroachment with land illegally sold to foreign investors.
The problem prompted the ministry to order the survey and investigation into the issuing of land documents on the island.
Pratheep Charoenporn, the deputy director-general of the Land Department, said advertisements for the sale of land plots on Khao Dang and Khao Duang Nok mountains on Samui in 2006 prompted the department to set up an inquiry to look into the ownership of those plots.
Some land owners were found to have used Sor Khor 1 documents issued for plots in other places to re-apply for title deeds for plots on Khao Duang Nok mountain, he said.
To solve forest encroachment and the re-application of Sor Khor 1 documents, global positioning system (GPS) technology has been used to identify land occupation on the island.
Mr Pratheep said the technology would enable officials to pinpoint the encroachments. GPS will be used to solve similar problems in other parts of the country.
A source said many Sor Khor 1 documents which had already been upgraded to title deeds were ''re-used'' to seek title deeds over other encroached plots on Koh Samui. The land is then sold to foreign investors with real estate projects on the island.
Some Sor Khor documents for plots on Samui were also found to have been used for someone else's plots on nearby islands such as Koh Phangan, added the source.
There has been speculation that Sor Khor 1 documents for 5,000 land plots on Samui, which had yet to be verified, might be used to apply for the ownership of encroached plots in other areas.
The source said the Land Department recently revoked a land document for a 96-rai plot on Khao Duang Nok, which was a construction site for The Peak property development project, after it found the Sor Khor 1 document used by the project developer to apply for a title deed was unlawfully issued.
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