Authorities accept bribes to change “Land Title”

August 30, 2022

HURFOM: The 2012 Farmland Law has clear prohibitions preventing farmland to be used for other purposes (farmland can only be used for paddy/rice cultivation), but officials appointed by the military council are abusing their power, allowing changes to the titles of some farmlands to create land plots for housing.

“Our Ministry of Agriculture already gave a clear instruction that farmland can’t be used for other purposes. Rubber or fruit plantations can be used for non-cultivation purposes after the negotiation with the particular departments, but farmland isn’t allowed to be used for other purposes. Even though there is a clear directives, everyone has done as they like after the farmland owners and the government officials reached a mutual understanding,” said an official from the Department of Agriculture

Transforming farmland or plantations into plots for housing has been taking place in every township of Mon State. Government officials have been accepting hundreds of millions of monetary bribes from wealthy businessmen granting them permission to change their land titles.

Rubber trees planted by the Highway Road in Southern Mon State have been chopped down and plantations have been transformed into plots for individual housing.

“Everyone’s working on a “mutual understanding”. After creating land plots (in farmland or plantation), fake reports were sent to particular departments/officials. (The officials said nothing as they accepted bribes from the land owners.) So the situation of farmland in the official map and in the real world is very different. The map stated the land is vacant but it was owned by someone on the ground. The map indicates farmland but there were land plots in reality,” continued the official.

According to the statistics from the department of agriculture, Mon State has about 690,000 acres of active farmland.

Written by Modinator · Filed Under News