Officials of the Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) in Falam Township, Chin state western Burma have been collecting money from villages in order to pay off its debts.

A village head said that the TPDC has run up a debt of about Kyat 25 lakhs. Now they are trying to pay it off by collecting money from villagers.

The collection of the money is being done under the supervision of Zaw Win Htay, President of the Falam TPDC since the first week of June. There are 96 village tracts in Falam Township, and they are collecting money in keeping with the population of the villages. Normally, the range varies from Kyat 1000 to Kyat 10,000 per tract. The highest is above Kyat 10,000.

Although they are collecting money without hesitation in the villages, they are afraid to collect in Falam town. The town people have no information regarding this forcible collection.

“They are hesitating to collect money in the town area. They are going to remote areas and collecting money forcibly,” he added.

According to a report the TPDC has authorized the secretary of village tracts and the president of each Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC) to collect the money. But they are not approaching town areas creating resentment in the village areas. If a village does not pay up the concerned president of the VPDC will have to take responsibility and will be removed from his post.

The TPDC of Falam Township has already collected Kyat 5,000 to Kyat 10,000 each from every village tract in the township.