Red Bull to return leased land in Khon Kaen following public protest

By THE NATION

 

 

ENERGY drink company Red Bull yesterday announced that it is ready to return 31 rai (5 hectares) of public land to the people, after a public outcry over a licence granted to the company to lease a plot of land contained within a Khon Kaen community forest.

 

Local citizens of Tambon Bandong in Ubonrat district have questioned the legitimacy of the Lands Department’s approval of the lease of public land in a community forest to Red Bull subsidiary KTD Property Development Ltd. 

 

Residents have suggested that their identities were stolen for a document showing widespread local support for the lease at a public meeting discussing the issue. Both the Lands Department and Interior Minister General Anupong Paochinda have come under fire over whether proper processes were followed in granting the lease.

 

A statement from KTD stressed their position that they have legally leased the land from the authority. They intend to return the land if local people are opposed to the lease, it said.

 

The statement said that the company originally intended to use the land to develop the water storage in the area and would also preserve the forest for the local community to use. It is company policy to provide benefits to local people, and they did not intend to use the water for the company’s operation.

 

However, as there was opposition to the company’s public land leasing, it would abandon the water management project on the plot as well as terminate the leasing contract and return the land to the people, the statement said.

 

The company insisted that it had complied with the land-use regulations and had obtained the leasing contract legally.

 

Interior Minister General Anupong Paochinda said that he had already received a report from a Land Department committee he sent this week to investigate the controversy after coming under personal criticism for his quick approval for leasing the lands. The committee had inspected the plot and found local people who were opposed to the land leasing.

 

However, the committee’s finding contradicted a document sent by local authorities to the Interior Ministry, which concluded that there was no opposition in the area.

 

That document was wrong, said Anupong. 

 

Anupong said he would order the permanent secretary to set up a committee to investigate all officers involved in the lease approval and find the wrongdoers. If anyone were found guilty, he would be punished, said Anupong.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30326814

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-09-16

I know very well that Red Bull is in a storm of massive problem due to it´s relations with "Running Hier". which could be a new song based on the original from Johnny Preston. As I see it, there is a bit of a country boy in him. Just sad nobody know which country! 

Here I do not understand the focus on them, though. If there is any wrong doing here, that would be coming totally from the land department, They must have been the ones renting the land out, right?!

Edited September 15, 20178 yr by Get Real

Maybe a deal to help in they problems they have with the boss

Thought you were meant to read documents before you sign them.

Anupong said he would order the permanent secretary to set up a committee to investigate all officers involved in the lease approval and find the wrongdoers. If anyone were found guilty, he would be punished, said Anupong.

No Anupong, its not "if" its who is guilty and then it becomes: is it someone you can, want to or will charge.

So much BS goes on here as "legitimate business" between private companies and government agencies that the country is floating in it.

Glad this one has partially turned around,

2 hours ago, rooster59 said:

It is company policy to provide benefits to

family members who kill cops.

General Anupong Paochinda has come under fire

 

Anupong is on the hot-seat, today, blimps, bomb detectors, CRES (2010 "crack-down"), land lease shenanigans.

 

What's the "over" on his transgressions?

 

I'll take the "under" on any "punishments".

 

Thank goodness the Junta is making progress on "corruption".

 

 

 

 

Edited September 16, 20178 yr by mtls2005

 

I wonder what the statute of limitations is on this offence ...

Maybe if Thai people would be a little smarter they would stop buying Krating Daeng/Red Bull products all together. So the company could concentrate in getting its rouge grandson back to face the Thai music.

But yes, that is alien thinking - just a silly idea of mine 

28 minutes ago, Sydebolle said:

Maybe if Thai people would be a little smarter they would stop buying Krating Daeng/Red Bull products all together. So the company could concentrate in getting its rouge grandson back to face the Thai music.

But yes, that is alien thinking - just a silly idea of mine 

 

 

I would hate to spoil your Thai-bashing pleasure, but you do realize, don't you, that :

 

1/ Red Bull is #1 in the world, which means that the impact of a boycott in Thailand would not inflict severe losses to the company,

 

2/ A large majority of Thai people are just as enraged as you are with this situation and a number of Thai media have launched boycott campaigns already, even though the legal context here makes this kind of action difficult. Individually, however, people do react. Among my Thai friends here, there are a few who say mai pen rai but most of them have already, quietly, started buying another brand. So no, they are not all passive, thick in the head and indifferent, no matter how much you'd like to generalize.

 

3/ Boycott does work when it's massive, and it seldom is because the egocentric impulse is what drives the world. That impulse is not Thai, it's universal, and it's reaching peaks never attained before, due to many factors which originated mostly in the West. Smartphones, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. are quickly turning us into egomaniacs. Regrettably, our ability to empathize with victims (necessary when lauching a boycott campaign) is getting thinner and thinner.

 

 

Edited September 16, 20178 yr by Yann55

4 hours ago, Get Real said:

I know very well that Red Bull is in a storm of massive problem due to it´s relations with "Running Hier". which could be a new song based on the original from Johnny Preston. As I see it, there is a bit of a country boy in him. Just sad nobody know which country! 

Here I do not understand the focus on them, though. If there is any wrong doing here, that would be coming totally from the land department, They must have been the ones renting the land out, right?!

Residents have suggested that their identities were stolen for a document showing widespread local support for the lease at a public meeting discussing the issue.

Surely the declared intention by the company to develop a water management area should have been subjected to a public hearing and an environmental impact study BEFORE granting a lease. Previous governments have had to overturn commercial developments after the event due to public opposition that was suppressed and the lessons should have been learned,

 

 

5 hours ago, ramrod711 said:

Residents have suggested that their identities were stolen for a document showing widespread local support for the lease at a public meeting discussing the issue.

Yep, but I still strongly believe that the land departments work is to check up that the papers they issue anything on are legit. It would have been as easy as ask 10 of the names on the list, right again?

Edited September 16, 20178 yr by Get Real

On 9/16/2017 at 7:11 AM, farmerjo said:

Thought you were meant to read documents before you sign them.

Most people who do things legally, do read before,  however, when you have others helping and providing the lease, why would one worry about reading anything.

Edited September 17, 20178 yr by Si Thea01