Government says 3.4 million land titles issued
The government has issued a total of 3.4 million land titles across the country, 500,000 of them since a renewed push personally orchestrated by Prime Minister Hun Sen, according to new figures released by the Land Management Ministry. In a notice posted to its website Friday, the ministry says the last 500,000 were issued since mid-2012, when Mr. Hun Sen issued Order 001, an ambitious plan originally intended to provide titles to 350,000 households living precariously on state land. ... But its release on Friday came just one day after a lengthy report from local rights group Adhoc claimed a near doubling of the number of land disputes it recorded last year, despite the titling push. The Adhoc report said many poor Cambodians with legitimate land claims were continuing to lose out to powerful interests and that Mr. Hun Sen’s titling program, having been implemented outside the usual government channels, is void of any independent oversight or functional complaint mechanisms. ... According to Adhoc, the government approved 485 of the social concessions for land-poor Cambodians last year. But it added that the vast majority of them were approved before July’s national elections—as a possible ploy for votes, it suggests—and that it remained to be seen how many of the concessions would be used as intended. ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-says-3-4-million-land-titles-issued-58477/
