Former justice minister Tawee Sodsong told parliament today that all the 813.3 hectares of land at Khao Kradueng, in Muang district of Buri Ram province, belong to State Railways of Thailand (SRT), as ruled by both the Supreme and the Administrative courts in nine cases.
He claimed, however, that the Land Department has persistently refused to comply with the courts’ orders, that the land ownership documents for some plots be revoked.
Challenging Tawee’s claim, Deputy Interior Minister Songsak Thongsri, of the Bhumjaithai party, said that he had checked all the nine judgements and did not find any statement specifying that all the land at Khao Kradueng belongs to SRT.
He said that the courts’ rulings are only binding on the land in the three cases decided by the courts, adding that the courts ruled that the Land Department could not issue landownership certificates to the owners because the land in question belongs to the SRT.
Tawee’s speech on the Khao Kradueng land controversy provoked protests from several Bhumjaithai MPs, claiming that the current debate in parliament is about the government’s policy statement.
The Chidchob family is reported to occupy more than 80 hectares at Khao Kradueng, which has been developed into the ‘Chang arena stadium’ and the ‘Buri Ram international circuit’.
