Forest dept takes action against MP

RULING BAD NEWS FOR PAREENA

>>The Royal Forest Department (RFD) has launched legal action against Pareena Kraikupt, a Palang Pracharath MP for Ratchaburi province, for allegedly encroaching on reserved forests.

The move came after the Council of State, the state’s legal adviser, ruled that reform land that is not allocated to landless people remains reserved forest land.

The decision dealt a big blow to the 40-year-old coalition MP, who maintained she simply farmed on reform land for which the penalty for encroachment is not criminal.

Under complaints filed yesterday, Ms Pareena was accused of illegally occupying most of the 665-rai forest land.

Cheewaparb Cheewatham, director of a forest protection office and adviser to the Payak Prai team, said yesterday the department had filed three complaints with police in charge of natural resources and the environment at the Crime Suppression Division.

The first complaint involves 387 rai where the farm sits and targets Ms Pareena, as owner of the Khao Son farm in Ratchaburi’s Chom Bung district.

The second complaint involves a 207-rai adjacent cattle field but does not specify the suspect for lack of clear evidence of ownership.

The third complaint covers another adjacent plot of 70 rai where eucalyptus trees are grown. No suspect is specified.

Mr Cheewaparb said that while no suspect was named in two cases, details of the complaints clearly show how they were linked to the Khao Son farm.

He added the department was confident the law did not allow Ms Pareena to occupy the land.

“She has no right nor the qualifications to occupy it,” he said.

Ms Pareeena earlier maintained she was not guilty of encroaching on reserved forests but admitted she may have done it unintentionally.

The problem in Ms Pareena’s case stems from overlapping areas of reform land under the jurisdiction of the Agriculture Ministry and forest land under the care of the RFD.

A small part of her farmland is clearly forest land and the department had already taken legal action against her last year.

Her remaining farmland is an overlapping area between national forests and reform land which has yet to be plotted and allocated.

Encroachers face a jail term calculated by plot size.