Government vows to speed up return of confiscated farmland
The Myanmar government has almost finished a review of farmland confiscated during military rule and will hasten its return this year, an official of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation said.
The review is being carried out by the Central Committee for Reviewing Confiscated Farmlands and Other Lands and the chief ministers of regions and states.
“The committee has apparently been reminded by senior officials not to delay the process, which it expects to complete in 2020,” the official said.
Although the ministry is part of the review, he said, the agency in charge is the General Administration Department under the Ministry of the Office of the central government.
U Sein Win, Pyithu Hluttaw (Lower House) MP for Maubin in Ayeyarwady Region, said it is up to the department to facilitate the review.
“If the General Administration Department and Land Record Department handle it effectively, the matter will be resolved quickly,” he said.
“We can’t do anything as the General Administration and Land Record departments have connections with those who confiscated the land,” U Sein Win added.
Some Pyithu Hluttaw MPs said that some of the confiscated land had been given up by the Tatmadaw (military), but has not yet been returned to the original owners.
U Kyaw Than Tun, Amyotha Hluttaw (Upper House) MP for Constituency 3 in Mandalay Region, alleged that more than 200 acres in Madaya township in Mandalay that should have been returned to the original owners were instead sold to four business owners last March.