PHUKET: A surveyor with a large police escort yesterday demarked valuable property on Phuket that is being claimed from beneath the homes of families who have been living on the site for 10 years.
Major General Apirak Hongtong, previously a Commander of Police on Phuket and later in Phang Nga, oversaw the operation at the Satonpol community, in the Palai vicinity of Phuket Zoo. With him were about 50 police.
Forty families, amounting to about 160 people, have been living in homes erected on the land for which a chanote title was only officially issued on December 26 last year.
Ronham Sankaow spoke for many of the families when he told Major General Apirak yesterday: ''You are working for the rich. We are poor. You never work for us.''
Residents are puzzled as to why the surveying work is being done after the issuing of the chanote. Usually the survey preceeds the issuing of the land title.
The chanote covers 83 rai and ownership is now said to be in the hands of four people, including one member of a well-known influential Phuket family.
An earlier attempt at surveying the property ended on February 14 when the surveyor and a police escort abandoned the work because of protests by residents.
On March 22, Major General Apirak first appeared at the site to supervise clearing work by two graders.
On the night of March 25, an unexplained fire destroyed several homes on the disputed property.
Phuket Governor Maitree Inthusut happened to be in the region and went to the scene, where he gave 2000 baht to three families made homeless in the blaze.
''I have ordered Chalong Police to investigate this case thoroughly as there are many problems between investors and villagers about land ownership in Phuket and I want to see justice served in this case,'' he told one media outlet.
The residents, who have nowhere else to go, have written to the office of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra pleading for help to prevent their homes being demolished.
Major General Apirak Hongtong, previously a Commander of Police on Phuket and later in Phang Nga, oversaw the operation at the Satonpol community, in the Palai vicinity of Phuket Zoo. With him were about 50 police.
Forty families, amounting to about 160 people, have been living in homes erected on the land for which a chanote title was only officially issued on December 26 last year.
Ronham Sankaow spoke for many of the families when he told Major General Apirak yesterday: ''You are working for the rich. We are poor. You never work for us.''
Residents are puzzled as to why the surveying work is being done after the issuing of the chanote. Usually the survey preceeds the issuing of the land title.
The chanote covers 83 rai and ownership is now said to be in the hands of four people, including one member of a well-known influential Phuket family.
An earlier attempt at surveying the property ended on February 14 when the surveyor and a police escort abandoned the work because of protests by residents.
On March 22, Major General Apirak first appeared at the site to supervise clearing work by two graders.
On the night of March 25, an unexplained fire destroyed several homes on the disputed property.
Phuket Governor Maitree Inthusut happened to be in the region and went to the scene, where he gave 2000 baht to three families made homeless in the blaze.
''I have ordered Chalong Police to investigate this case thoroughly as there are many problems between investors and villagers about land ownership in Phuket and I want to see justice served in this case,'' he told one media outlet.
The residents, who have nowhere else to go, have written to the office of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra pleading for help to prevent their homes being demolished.
If the residents have been living on the site for 10 years, and if no-one has claimed the land in that period, I believe that under Thai law they would have legal squatters rights.
Oh wait! They are poor and the new owners are rich. Whatever was I thinking....
Posted by Simon Luttrell on April 4, 2013 12:31