Parina Appointed to Anti-Graft Committee

[Nereus]

Unbiased government!
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Parina Appointed to Anti-Graft Committee, Netizens Gobsmacked

http://www.khaosodenglish.com/politics/ ... obsmacked/

BANGKOK — Netizens are left in disbelief on Friday to hear that a coalition politician accused of encroaching on public land was formally appointed to a House Committee on anti-corruption measures.

#Parina, a hashtag referring to Phalang Pracharath MP Parina Kraikup, soared to the top-trending place on Thai Twitter hours after her appointment was published on the Royal Government Gazette website, though she’s been serving as a de facto member since November.

According to the announcement, Parina and a fellow Phalang Pracharath lawmaker, Sira Jenjaka, joined the committee to fill vacant seats left by MPs from the same party who resigned earlier.

“The best thing they can do to belittle citizens is to appoint a person who is ridden with graft into an anti-graft committee,” user @wongthanong tweeted.

“I’m not surprised why she isn’t afraid of her forest encroachment case. It turns out that she’s preparing to occupy the seat,” another user @nnff_kk wrote. “I’m so depressed with this country.”

Parina stands accused of building her poultry farm on two portions of public lands in Ratchaburi province – one in protected forest and another in government land plots reserved for impoverished farmers.

It has been nearly two months since the scandal made the headlines, but the authorities have yet to settle on which department would pursue criminal charges against her.

Environmental minister Varawut Silpa-archa on Thursday said he has not received the latest report from the Royal Forest Department, which oversees Parina’s forest intrusion case.

However, he said that the Council of State, which is tasked with interpreting the laws, has called the department to testify twice already.

“We should be able to settle the case soon when the Council of State reaches its decision,” Varawut said. “I confirm that the case is going forward without any delays. The law is applicable to anyone without reservations.”

Parina on her part told Workpoint News that she’s still considered innocent by the law, and therefore eligible to carry out her duties.

Hours before the announcement was made, Parina and Sira caught brief attention from the media when Parina sparked a quarrel at a House Committee meeting.

The argument broke out when she asked the committee chairman, Seri Ruam Thai MP Sereepisut Temiyavet, why her protest against him was not included in the meeting’s agenda, to which Sereepisut shot back, “none of your damn business!”

Parina then demanded Sereepisut to take back his words, which he refused to do so, leading to a shouting match witnessed by multiple reporters. Sira also jumped to Parina’s defense, escalating the feud even further.

After the trio argued for about 15 minutes, Sereepisut eventually called the meeting to be over.

A file photo of Parina Kraikup, right, and Sira Jenjaka, left, during a House Committee on anti-corruption meeting.

PARINA_Header-696x464.jpg (49.27 KiB) Viewed 213 times

[Nereus]

And about bloody time!
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Encroachment complaints filed against Pareena

Criminal complaint a blow to government MP who said offence was only minor

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... st-pareena

The Royal Forest Department has taken legal action against Pareena Kraikupt, a Palang Pracharath MP for Ratchaburi province for encroaching reserved forest land.

The move came after the Council of State, the government’s legal advisory body, ruled that reform land defined but not yet allocated to needy people remains reserved forest land.

The decision deals a big blow to the 44-year-old MP, who maintained that she simply farmed on reform land, for which the penalty for encroachment was not criminal.

The action comes after weeks of legal dithering by a number of government agencies about exactly what Ms Pareena might be guilty of. Critics said authorities appeared to be reluctant to take action against a government MP and member of an influential family. Her party has assigned a lawyer to help her with her case.

Under the complaints filed on Saturday, Ms Pareena was accused of illegally occupying most of the 665 rai of forest land under scrutiny.

Cheewaparb Cheewatham, director of a forest protection office and adviser to the Payak Prai team, said 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 that the chicken farm in Chom Bung district occupies and targets Ms Pareena, as the owner of the Khao Son farm.

The second complaint involves a 207-rai adjacent cattle grazing area 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 explained that although no suspect was named in two of the cases, the details of the complaints clearly showed how they were linked to the Khao Son farm.

He added that the department was confident the occupation of the land by Ms Pareena is not the intention of the law.
“She has no right nor qualifications to occupy it,” he said.

Ms Pareena has maintained that she was not guilty of encroaching on reserved forest land but admitted she might have done so unintentionally.

The problem in Ms Parrena’s case stems from overlapping areas of reform land under the jurisdiction of the Agriculture Ministry and forest land under the care of the Royal Forest Department.

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 forest and reform land that has yet to subdivided into plots and allocated.

There is no serious penalty for occupying reform land. Anyone found to have encroached on it will be evicted and the land returned for allocation to the needy.

But in the case of forest land, an encroacher will face a jail term, calculated by plot, of 4-20 years for a plot over 25 rai and 1-10 years for a smaller one.

The Royal Forest Department had asked the Council of State for guidance on how an overlapping area should be treated. It replied on Feb 11 that the status of forest land is not automatically revoked once it is declared a reform zone, and the department must take action to protect it.

It fully becomes reform land only when the land is handed over to the land reform committee to be alloted and allocated to needy people as the original law intended.