Pursat provincial governor Mao Thonin says land disputes between residents and companies are under control in his province. Heng Chivoan
Pursat provincial governor Mao Thonin has claimed that land disputes between residents and major companies allowed to manage land in the province are no longer a problem and minor disputes have been solved through land dispute resolutions each week.
The claim was made at a Thursday press conference. More than 30 people, including leaders and department directors, attended the conference.
“Concerning past land disputes, they are very complex, particularly disputes between residents and companies.
“But we solved those problems by examining the reasons and documents. Sometimes, if residents claim the land belongs to them, they have a document with a clear map,” Thonin said.
He said that solving chronic land disputes hasn’t ended though. Solutions are made every week by a committee that was formed to reach goals through land dispute solution working groups in the provincial and district levels down to the communes.
“We solved major land disputes but concerning the current land disputes, I think of them as family disputes. Land was not expensive in the past and land boundary problems were rare.
“But now the land is expensive and the number of family members has grown. They also need land,” he said.
Thonin said in the past, it was not common to post land boundary markers. Planted trees served in place of the boundaries. Once the trees were cut down and removed the boundary markers disappeared,” he said.
Pursat provincial Department of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction director Aun Sothear told The Post on Thursday that the province had previously set up mechanisms to solve a great many land disputes. He said the result has been positive.
“Having participated in solving the disputes, there are mixed cases each week. In the past week, we solved 10 land disputes. But as the governor said, they were only simple disputes and there are no major ones like before,” Sothear said.
Pursat Licadho Investigator Kem Kimsrun said in his observation, major land disputes in the province were solved. He said people don’t gather to protest like in other provinces.
However, he still wants the leaders of other provinces to continue setting up clear-cut policies to solve land disputes quickly and transparently.
