Govt urged to push community title deeds for landless people
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The Land Reform Network is calling on the government to expedite the project of issuing community land title deeds to landless people.
The community land title deed project had been initiated by the previous government, led by former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, in a move to reduce inequality among people and grant plots to the landless.
This government decided to continue with the project and aims to divide more than 2 million rai among landless people within two years. Since the project was launched in 2010, only Tambon Klong Yong in Nakhon Pathom province has been issued a community land title deed by the Community Land Office.
According to the Land Reform Network, more than 400 communities are still waiting to be granted community title deeds. People in these communities are leading insecure lives, with some facing threats of being thrown out of their land, as they do not have legal ownership documents.
“I believe that land reform will not happen if the government does not have a clear policy about giving people land security and granting community title deeds,” Pongthip Samranchit, a member of the Land Reform Network, said.
She was speaking at the “What will Thailand Lose if the Land is not Reformed?” seminar organised by the Land Reform Network and Social Inequity Reduction Network at Chulalongkorn University yesterday.
About 50 participants from the landless people’s network, civic groups and officials attended the seminar to discuss how the government could divide land-ownership rights among poor people who do not have any land to live on and earn from.
At the forum, participants suggested that the government be asked to continue implementing the community land title deeds project because it will give landless people some security.
Pongthip also asked the government to issue a law to endorse community land title deeds.
“Even though they have been given a community title deed by the previous government, they cannot continue living on this land forever because this title was not issued under a law, but was issued under a regulation,” she said.
The community land title deed was issued under a regulation set up by the Prime Minister’s Office, and it can be changed later.
Krissada Boonchai, a researcher who has been conducting a study on land reform in Thailand, said yesterday that legalising the community land title deeds would secure people’s lives.
The government should also consider collecting land tax at a progressive rate from landlords and this may help take land back from rich people, he added.
A former member of the National Reform Committee, Permsak Makarapirom, said the government should reveal the amount of land owned by people and see how this land can be fairly distributed.
