DSI wants to speed up return of public Layan and Leypang beach lands
Department of Special Investigation (DSI) chief Pol Colonel Paisit Wongmuang said on Friday that he would visit Phuket on November 16 to discuss legal actions against those accused of encroaching on Layan and Leypang beaches.
His comment was made following the Supreme Court’s ruling on Wednesday for a lawsuit filed in 2006 by nine plaintiffs against the Phuket Land Office and related agencies over the authorities’ allegedly unfair accusation that six persons/legal entities had grabbed 178-rai of beaches in Thalang district. The Supreme Court ruled that the beaches are public lands, giving a victory to the state agency side.
Paisit said the DSI would now wait for the Land Office to revoke the land title deeds along the beaches before proceeding to file encroachment charges against the suspects. After the deed revocation, the Phuket governor will ask the National Land Committee’s approval for its official status as “state-owned” lands, which would also be published in the Royal Gazette. Then the Land Office could issue a Nor Sor Lor (state-owned land title deed) document.
As the DSI probed this case, investigators were assigned to put up signs to notify those who were occupying the land to leave within 15 days because the Supreme Court had already gave the final verdict.
Paisit said that the land was being encroached on and used for hotel and tourism businesses. Purchase price for the land was as high as Bt70 million per rai.
He said if those occupying the land refuse to leave, the DSI would apply for arrest warrants against them because the land in question was for the public and not for any individual or company to occupy for their own use.
