Bangkok backtracks on SorPorKor cancelations

BANGKOK (The Nation): The Agricultural Land Reform Office (ALRO) in Bangkok, which canceled 153 SorPorKor 4-01 papers held by 139 people in Phuket for misuse of the land, has announced that, after further investigation, it is recommending some people have their papers reinstated. Adisak Srisappakij, Permanent Secretary of the ALRO, told The Nation that he plans to ask the SorPorKor Land Commission to reinstate the papers on 32 plots previously held by 31 people after checks had shown that they had done nothing wrong, and were genuinely poor farmers. He gave a couple of examples. Saowapa Srisansuchart was originally included in the list because she had been accused of being an executive director of a private company (and therefore ineligible to hold SPK land, which is reserved for poor people). Further investigations, however, had shown that she was merely a shareholder in the company. In another case, he said, Wichit Kaepradub had been accused of selling his SorPorKor land when in fact he had not; he had borrowed money from a bank, using the SorPorKor paper as collateral. “I would like to stress that the reason I have asked for these people to have their papers reinstated is because they have genuinely done nothing wrong,” K. Adisak said. “I am not doing it to ‘help’ specific people.” Details are to be sent to the commission, which will make recommendations to Deputy Agriculture Minister Newin Chidchob in June.