Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha should renew support for the Land Bank Administration Institute (LBAI), which oversees communal land deeds, to help about 400,000 landless families nationwide, a civic group says. More than 100 people from the People's Movement for a Just Society (P-Move), led by coordinator Prayong Doklamyai, yesterday lodged a petition with the prime minister urging him to extend the LBAl's mandate and also review his order to scrap the Office of Community Land Titles. Both agencies oversee examination of community qualifications in the process of granting communal land deeds. The move came after a notice from the Office of the Prime Minister announced the scrapping of the office, which also stands to affect communities which had already been granted land deeds. Mr Prayong said the government should ask a deputy prime minister, or other ministers, to chair a committee to oversee the documentation of communal land titles for villagers who live on state land He said the agency has ceased its operations as it does not have anyone of authority to approve land-related issues. The group also urged the government to speed up legislating the Land Bank and Community Land, and the Natural Resources Management Rights bills which are pending before the National Legislative Assembly.
Mr Prayong said the bills will help create equality among people in the country and lead to land management reform. He also proposed the government organise a meeting with representatives of P-Move to discuss the bills. The Abhisit Vejjajiva government started the land title deeds project in 2010 to reduce inequality among people and grant plots to the landless. The Abhisit government pledged it would speed up the process of granting community land title deeds to 424 communities nationwide.