Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon has handed back land title deeds worth nearly 2 billion baht to northeastern people exploited and treated unfairly by predatory lenders.
Beaming with smiles and shedding tears of happiness, hundreds of residents from eight northeastern provinces queued up at a school in Sri Sa Ket to recover land documents illegally seized by non-bank lenders after their failure to settle debts.
Authorities decided to intervene after finding that many creditors had charged borrowers unusually high interest rates and forced them to give up their land when they defaulted.
Gen Prawit congratulated the residents but urged them to "live a modest life and no longer mortgage land".
This initiative was part of the state's effort to "return happiness to people", he said during the fourth deeds-giving event this year.
Up to 1,055 deeds, covering more than 4,000 rai of land, were handed back to the northeasterners yesterday. In return, many of them gave Gen Prawit and officers garlands and bouquets as well as words of thanks.
"I'll live a humble life with no more mortgages," Chamnian Kalawong said as she had her 41 rai returned.
Isan people make up 70% of loan shark victims. Some 600,000 of 900,000 debtors live in the Northeast.
Acting Immigration Bureau chief Surachate Hakparn has vowed to eradicate the debt problems in the region within six months.
Since police launched a campaign against illegal lending on Sept 14 over 2,200 deeds covering 7,000 rai of land have been returned, worth 3 billion baht.