Koh Kong provincial authorities said they would not approve the sale and purchase of land in protected areas without proper paperwork.
They vowed to weed out land corruption following a July 3 Facebook post by Prime Minister Hun Sen calling for the return of land to locals living in protected areas.
In an announcement on Tuesday, officials said land transactions are taking place in protected areas around villages and communes, especially in Botum Sakor, Kiri Sakor and Thma Bang districts.
Nearly 100 families living on a public sidewalk in Boeung Keng Kang district’s Tomnop Teuk commune in Phnom Penh were recently given plots of land by the government in Khasch Kandal district’s Vihear Suor commune in Kandal province to encourage them to move.
Eng Phearith, 24, moved from the sidewalk to one of the plots and told The Post on Sunday that it was a win-win solution for citizens and the administration orchestrated by Prime Minister Hun Sen.
The Preah Vihear Provincial Court has dropped all charges against eight ethnic Kuoy villagers who were in a land dispute with the Hengfu Group Sugar Industry Co Ltd since 2014.
Wednesday’s decision was made by the judge who tried the case on June 10. The eight were accused of detention and illegal confinement.
Defence lawyer Sam Tithseyha told The Post on Thursday it was the right decision because they are the victims and this decision shows their innocence as they are not guilty of the charges and have good names in society.
Kampong Speu province is set to reclaim land in the Kirirom National Park after accusations from locals that environmental officers had encroached on 2ha of it.
The statement came from provincial governor Vei Samnang who vowed to get to the bottom of the matter.
The dispute began when a letter containing the thumbprints of nearly 20 residents was sent to a commune chief claiming that the signatories are witnesses in Chambak commune’s Thmei Village.
THE Municipality of Otjiwarongo has started profiling its informal settlements to better plan and upgrade the areas for their residents.
According to Adelheid Shilongo, the Otjiwarongo local authority's public relations officer, the profiling is important because it will provide the municipality with crucial and accurate data on the informal settlements' demographics, which in turn would enable better planning and the upgrading of the areas.
Minister of Environment Say Sam Al has sent letters to 20 provincial governors telling them to provide relevant documents on land issues in natural resource protected areas.
This, as an inter-ministerial team begins to allocate land to citizens on the recommendation of Prime Minister Hun Sen.
The ministry’s secretary of state and spokesman Neth Pheaktra said: “The ministry manages, protects and conserves over 7.3 million hectares located in 20 provinces.
Cambodia’s government is unable to resolve the country’s myriad land disputes because many of them involve senior officials, Minister of Interior Sar Kheng said in a rare acknowledgement Tuesday, as a rights group urged authorities to take action against all perpetrators of illegal land grabs equally.
Speaking at a conference that included provincial governors and local authorities from across the country, Sar Kheng did not disclose the names of the involved officials but said that at least one of the disputes involved one of Cambodia’s deputy prime ministers.
FORMER farm workers are now the owners of the land where they used to work in Bago City.
This, after they received their certificates of land ownership award (Cloas) from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)-Negros Occidental II.
The recipients are 27 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs), who now own the 18.0580-hectare landholding formerly owned by Carmelino Mamar.
Situated at Barangay Bacong, it was covered through the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp) specifically under compulsory acquisition.
The government, through the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, has advised individuals and investors interested in acquiring lands in the Voltaian Basin to contact the Lands Commission for guidance and assistance.
“Any individual, private or public establishment, be it local or foreign, intending to acquire land in the subject area for any developmental land-use activity is required to contact the Lands Commission Secretariat in the region where the land is situated or Head Office of the Lands Commission in Accra,” it said in a statement.
EMEKA ELEH is a past president, Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) and a principal partner at Ubosi Eleh and Company. In this interview with BERTRAM NWANNEKANMA, he spoke on the imperative of land titling, challenges of inaccurate data and other issues in the real estate sector.