Members of the Union parliament have alleged that the work of a committee appointed to investigate land ownership disputes is being hampered by conflicts of interest.
Personal involvement was slowing down the work of the committee as it tries to determine whether land should be returned to its rightful owners, say MPs.
“The hluttaw is speaking out,” Amyotha Hluttaw MP U Phone Myint Aung (New National Democratic Party, Yangon Region), said on April 8.
“If I had been a general, I might have seized the land but now one cannot follow personal interests alone,” U Phone Myint Aung said.
Another Amyotha Hluttaw MP who has spoken out over the issue is Dr Aye Maung (Arakan National Party, Rakhine State).
“Today’s administrators are the heirs of the former government; they themselves were involved in land grabs and words on paper alone will not be enough to solve this,” Dr Aye Maung said on April 8.
When the Land Use Management Central Committee was formed last September it pledged resolve the 745 land ownership disputes referred to it by a parliamentary committee within a year.
The committee, chaired by Vice President U NyanTun, said it intended to resolve two cases a day.
The Deputy Minister for Agriculture and Irrigation, U Ohn Than, told the PyidaungsuHluttaw on January 21 that 418 of the 745 cases had been resolved between October 26 and December 25, a claim disputed by some MPs.
“We see the return of lands reported in the government newspapers but we do not see the ‘on the ground’ results of this in Rakhine State,”Pyithu Hluttaw MP Daw Khin Saw Wai (Arakan National Party, RathayThaung Township, Rakhine State) told Mizzima on April 9.
