LAND invaders who have lived in any one of the fifteen ‘invaded’ villages in Phuket for more than three years will soon be issued with a title deed (chanote) for their property to prevent any further invasions.

The committee of the Network to Improve the Police and Social (NIPS) met with the related provincial offices to discuss ways to solve the problem of people moving into an area and building a house on land that does not belong to them. A plan has thus been made for the ‘eligible’ properties and no more properties will be allowed to be built upon that land.

In attendance at the meeting was Nipon Boonapattaro, assistant to the Prime Minister’s office who said, “The villagers are poor and do not have any other houses to move into, so we have decided to give them the rights on that land. There are 30 villages in the south and 15 villages in Phuket and we have a plan to issue land rights documents to all the villages within 120 days.”

Much of the 'invaded' land in Phuket belongs to either the Treasury Department, or is controlled by the OrBorJor or Marine Department.

However, there are two villages; Klong Pak Bang in Kathu and Tha Rua Mai land in Rassada that do not fall under any organisation or municipality’s responsibility. Khun Nipon has promised that this problem will be remedied by the Phuket Provincial Land Office by 8 December.

Phuket governor, Wichai Praisangob, who has been known to be sympathetic to the financially destitute and disadvantaged in the past, remarked, “These villages are too over-crowded, and to protect against land invasions in the future we may have to build canals and fences.”