A slew of new government decrees has privatized seven public lakes and waterways in Kandal and further carved up Phnom Penh’s Boeng Tamok. One local commune chief is threatening to resign over the sudden handover of a lake his residents rely on.
A tranche of government documents released this week shows hundreds of hectares of state-land plots privatized for connected individuals and companies across the country.
The government privatized more than 2 hectares of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Tamok to the chief of Phnom Penh’s Pur Senchey district council, who is also an appointed assistant to Prime Minister Hun Sen.
The Supreme Court on Thursday denied bail to a land broker who claimed he wasn’t aware he was falsifying documents, after he was arrested alongside seven others in relation to land conflicts in Preah Sihanouk’s Bit Traing commune.
Six suspects have been arrested for allegedly murdering a family of five for allegedly performing witchcraft, and CNRP leader Kem Sokha’s trial is delayed on account of a Covid-19 positive case.
Prime Minister Hun Sen granted the Justice Ministry permission to sell 140 hectares of Boeng Tamok lake and use the proceeds for infrastructure upgrades, according to a royal decree, with the new diktat coming weeks after the ministry was given land in the lake area.
Lao Annie, who heads several real estate companies in Cambodia, according to company records, said on Tuesday that she was “shocked” when she read news about all the important people who had land near her in Preah Sihanouk.
The documents, released on Monday and all signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen, are dated between August 4 and September 2 and continue the recent flurry of land privatization across the country
A former Pailin governor and a real estate developer have received land that was formerly designated as state forest but had already been cleared, cultivated and sold by individuals, local officials said.
The government has allocated three plots totaling nearly 100 hectares in Kampot, Kandal and Preah Sihanouk provinces separately to the prime ministerial bodyguard unit, a businesswoman and 22 families, according to sub-decrees released this week.
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