Chhin chides ministry on ELCs
Deputy Prime Minister Bin Chhin, the Kingdom’s top authority in charge of resolving land disputes, slammed the Ministry of Agriculture over “shameful” irregularities in granting economic land concessions at the Environment Ministry’s annual meeting on December 21. During yesterday’s meeting, Chhin accused the Ministry of Agriculture of granting land concessions in protected areas, displacing villagers and carelessly handing out huge swaths of land to corporations. He said that while both the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Environment can grant economic land concessions for companies to invest, the Environment Ministry does it better and more transparently. “We have to talk honestly here,” Chhin said. “The granting of economic land concession is, by policy, made only on barren forest land where the forest does not grow well. This is not the reality; I think that all of you have known, but you do not dare to speak.”
