The resolution came at the inaugural meeting of the working group at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday (Sept 14), chaired by Phuket Vice Governor Amnuay Pinsuwan.
The working group was set up by the Phuket Provincial Office at the behest of the Phuket Provincial Ombudsman’s Office (Damrongtham Centre) in July following a slew of complaints regarding the Royal Thai Navy being granted to use all 3,700 rai of the protected forest to create a new home for the 22nd Anti-Aircraft Battalion, the 2nd Anti-Aircraft Regiment, the Anti-Aircraft Command Unit, an Air Defense and Coastal Defense Center and the 4th Naval Police Battalion of the Naval Police Department.
The aim of the database is to provide a system for people who occupy or claim to own land in the Bang Khanun forest to refer to, and to receive complaints and grievances “from citizens who have suffered from the performance or non-performance of government agencies”, said an official report of the meeting.
The working group comprises a wide range of stakeholders, including representatives of the Royal Thai Navy Third Area Command, the Phuket Provincial Land Office, the Director of the Phuket Provincial Natural Resources and Environment Office, the Director of the Phuket Provincial Buddhism Office, the Director of the Phuket Forestry Center, the Director of Thalang Technical College, the Director of the Phuket Provincial Ombudsman’s Office and the chiefs of and staff from the the Chiefs of the Sakhu Tambon Administration Organisation (OrBorTor) and the Thepkrasattri OrBorTor.
Specifically raised as the topic to be addressed are the complaints from local residents who claim they have suffered from the Forestry Department allowing the Royal Thai Navy and Thalang Technical College to use land in the forest which overlaps with land in the forest where people live and have plantations, the report noted.
The working group has the authority to access information from a range of government agencies, and the aim is to create a map showing areas in the forest owned or claimed by people living or using land in the forest.
The information collected by the working is to be provided to the Phuket Governor’s Integrated Provincial Administrative Committee, the Office of the National Land Policy Committee (ONLB) and the Provincial State Land Rights Verification Subcommittee and to recommend solutions to problems, the report explained.
The working is next scheduled to meet on Oct 3.
The inaugural meeting of the working group came one day before the chiefs of OrBorTor Sakhu and OrBorTor Thepkrasattri are to submit their findings in their investigation into 49 houses that are believed to have been built illegally in their respective areas.
Thalang District Chief Bancha Thanu-in last month ordered the chiefs of OrBorTor Sakhu and OrBorTor Thepkrasattri investigate the permissions issued to allow the alleged illegal construction to proceed.
The OrBorTor chiefs had until today (Sept 15) to submit their findings.