Farmland to be confiscated

Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Narumon Pinyosinwat on Tuesday vowed that the agricultural land found to have been used unlawfully for operating Phu Nub Dao Farm in Saraburi will be confiscated.
A probe has also been launched to identify individuals complicit in the misuse of the plot. One of the individuals in question is believed to be close to a high-profile politician.
According to the minister, the question was how the land came to be procured by the resort operator despite having been confiscated. The person that sold the land to the resort was not a landless farmer, which made them unqualified to own the plot in the first place.
Police were investigating the resort’s operations on Tuesday. Investigators found suspicious transactions associated with the land purchase, worth at least 10 million baht in total, made to an unnamed woman said to be closely connected to a well-known politician.
Phu Nub Dao Farm had been out of business for some time but was later reopened, Ms Narumon noted.
The ministry’s fact-finding panel was looking into whether any ministry officials had a hand in assisting the resort in the unlawful acquisition and occupation of the land even after it had already been confiscated by the Agricultural Land Reform Office (Alro), said the minister.
The minister said the land will be taken back, as will other plots that were acquired and used illegally against the Alro’s objective, which is to have the land distributed to poor farmers who do not own any land on which to farm.
As for the resort’s alleged connection to the woman under suspicion identified by her first name initial “Ch”, the minister said all she knew about this part of the case was what was already in the news.
She said she had no more information about the investigation other than who occupied the land illegally.
Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) leader Gen Prawit Wongsuwon, who was widely speculated to be the politician in question, on Tuesday answered a telephone call made to him by a Government House reporter for the first time since the controversy broke.
When asked about the rumour that one of his female close associates may be linked to the resort’s operation, Gen Prawit said: “No, nothing. I have done nothing wrong.”
And when asked if he was considering issuing a public explanation that might quell the rumour and distance him from the controversy, the former deputy prime minister sounded bemused by the suggestion.
Gen Prawit then hung up the telephone and did not answer a follow-up phone call.