The residents of Pathein have reported that the troops and subordinate personnel of the Military Council have recently initiated the practice of conducting inspections on overnight guest registrations within the framework of their business operations.
In Pathein Township, located in the Ayeyarwady Region, the authorities use inspections on overnight guest registrations as a revenue-generating opportunity. The whole spectrum of bodies under the Military Council, including soldiers, police officers, administrative officials, Pyu-Saw-Htee militia members, and fire personnel, are actively involved in conducting these inspections, locals said.
" The ward administrative demanded that I pay a 10,000 kyats fine, as I failed to notify them in advance about an overnight guest at my residence. When I protested, deeming the fine to be excessive, the office staff informed me that the amount was determined by an army captain, his superior officer. In a threatening manner, he then questioned whether I would prefer to be arrested instead of paying the fine”, a woman in her 40s from Panset ward said.
Nowadays in Pathein it happens across all 14 wards, there is a consistent practice of rotating inspections on overnight guest registrations, carried out almost every night by personnel from diverse departments operating under the authority of the Military Council.
In Pathein, when residents who are officially registered in their household lists temporarily relocate to another ward, they are still treated as overnight guests and are required to notify the authorities beforehand. Recently, a resident living in government staff housing disclosed that a payment of 1000 kyats is made to the hundred-house-group elders to facilitate this notification process.
"If you happen to be a guest visiting from another town, it is mandatory to notify the authorities once again after a week. However to accomplish this, an additional fee of 1,000 kyats must be paid”, a local told NMG.
When she applied to the immigration office of the township to register her current residence in a different ward, in order to avoid the inconvenience of frequent notifications, she was informed that she needed to pay a fee of 10000 kyats, a 30-year-old woman who had recently relocated and applied for a household list, said.
"I had to pay 1000 kyats to the administrative office of my previous ward, and another 1000 kyats to the administrative office of the ward I am currently relocating to. On top of that, there are additional expenses for making copies of required documents. It has reached a point where even the underprivileged find it challenging to move within the township”, she mumbled.
Families who relocated and couldn't afford to pay a lump sum of 15000 kyats for a change of household list in their new ward had no choice but to opt for a monthly payment of 1000 kyats.
"At the office, we typically make hundreds of thousands of kyats every night by checking the overnight guest lists, issuing recommendation letters for guests staying overnight, and imposing fines for failure to notify the presence of overnight guests in advance. On nights when the earnings are lower, the staff often grumble about their luck for the night”, a source close to a ward administrative office said.
Out of Pathein’s 14 wards, Ward No. 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 14 face frequent disruptions as soldiers, police officers, administrative officials, Pyu-Saw-Htee personnel, and fire personnel conduct regular inspections on overnight guest registrations.
