Task force raids Petchabun resorts

By The Nation

 

 

An integrated task force under the leadership of the Royal Forestry Department to suppress encroachment upon forest reserves and land authorised for special settlements in Petchabun’s popular resort town of Khao Kho has raided 15 more resorts as part of a two-week operation.

 

One resort was found to be hosting a renowned actor.

 

The force, including the Intenal Security Operations Command Region 4 officers, has continued its operations to suppress at least 135 resorts encroaching on forest reserves and those designated for special uses. 

 

The land, believed to be thousands of rai, was previously allocated to those once fighting the state decades ago before returning to join the government with special terms to help fight fellow communists. They were given land in Khao Kho to make a living, but years later some plots were found changing hands or being turned into resorts.

The force last week raided 15 resorts and this week 15 more. The land seized ranged from one to 13 rai. 

 

As the cases are complicated by various claims to the allocated land, the force would step up measures to ensure that the arrests would lead to court cases and that wrongdoers cannot make excuses to elude punishment, according to Cheewapap Cheewatham, chief of the Phayak Prai task force and the Forest Protection Operation Centre. 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30345766

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-05-19

16 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

An integrated task force under the leadership of the Royal Forestry Department to suppress encroachment upon forest reserves and land authorised for special settlements

these encroachers are like cockroaches

None of these encroachers would have been possible without the local administrator and law enforcement agencies turning a blind eye for the right payola....

57 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

As the cases are complicated by various claims to the allocated land,

Complicated land ownership rules appear to be a Thai phenomenon. Plenty of loopholes to allow the wealthy to obtain land that wasn't meant for them. Money changing hands, documents being obtained and resorts being built that no-one at the time considered to be illegal. Suddenly political changes remove the blindfolds and the illegality is obvious to all. People whose myopia was induced by monetary reward suddenly realize it was forestry land all along. Quite a system.

Back in those days half of Thailand wouldn't of been surveyed properly 

One more example of why the Thai laws against foreigners owning land are actually pretty humane.  If the locals don't know they bought illegal land, what chance does a foreigner stand.

 

Better to have 100 of us griping about not being able to own land than 95 of us griping about losing our savings because, like even the locals, we didn't know the land wasn't legal.  Because all the documents looked legit.  But that apparently doesn't mean much.

 

18 minutes ago, impulse said:

If the locals don't know they bought illegal land,

that is sarcasm, right?

This is interesting to hear. We have been looking at buying land here and just two weeks ago the Lands Office warned against buying a parcel even though it had a Chanote title. They said there would be problems for the owners soon. (Although previously they did not warn us about another parcel, but the local municipal office did.)

Where we are looking there is a diagonal line on their charting maps. One side of the line the title is good, land on the other side has obtained illegal title documents. A huge amount of land is involved.

5 hours ago, rooster59 said:

They were given land in Khao Kho to make a living, but years later some plots were found changing hands or being turned into resorts.

Apparently there were unwritten limits as to how the land could be used to "make a living." Selling land and building resorts are ways to generate income to make a living.

But no, that's not legal.

Sorry, but the so-called enforcement to suppress encroachment upon forest reserves looks more like a military government land grab.

Maybe it is just the military government overturning past corruption. The land was given by the King for rural purposes, not resorts, but this is not just resorts. There is much more land involved.

On 2018-05-19 at 6:39 AM, rooster59 said:

The land, believed to be thousands of rai, was previously allocated to those once fighting the state decades ago before returning to join the government with special terms to help fight fellow communists. They were given land in Khao Kho to make a living, but years later some plots were found changing hands or being turned into resorts.

The question then is, What were the conditions of the allocations?  Is this simply a case of breaking the terms of the agreement, or, are they adding conditions to what was an open "Make a living?"  Is there a document that they can point to that says farming only?