Family seeks PM’s help over alleged land grab
An elderly Thai couple and their 33-year-old son have said they are prpeared to crawl to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-cha’s office to receive help in their battle with an alleged land-grabbing investor.
The family claims that the investor has blocked access to their 5-rai (0.8-hectare) rubber plantation in Surat Thani’s Wiang Sa district for a decade, and threatened to shoot them dead if they triy to get in access to the property to tap latex.
Lamenting to the media on Monday, the family said their efforts to get help from state agencies had been to no avail. They said they were prepared to go to Government House in Bangkok and crawl from the main entrance to the prime minister’s office to appeal for his assistance.
Pramuan Khongchawan, 64, his wife Prapai, 60, and son Kittipong, 33, took reporters to inspect the plantation, which Pramuan inherited and for which he holds a land title deed numbered 16696.
They previously had an access to the land via a public road, but they say an investor took possession of public land in Tambon Thung Luang in 2005. The investor then sold the land, divided it into plots at Bt200,000 per plot, and dug a three-metre-wide and five-metre-deep ditch that blocked the family’s access to the plantation.
They had not dared to go near the plot since 2007, when they received a threat that those entering the plantation without permission would be shot dead, Pramuan said.
He said the family’s pleas to state agencies had fallen on deaf ears.
Pramuan said that if telling their story to the media did not lead to help, the family was prepared to crawl to the PM’s office to ask for his sympathy and assistance.