Pheu Thai MP upset with Yongyuth over Samui land

The Pheu Thai Party will today file a complaint with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Interior Minister Yongyuth Wichaidit after the latter's ministry refused to revoke title deeds for public land on Surat Thani's Koh Samui allegedly held by the son of a leading Opposition politician.

Pheu Thai Party list MP and party spokesman Prompong Nopparit said Land Department director-general Anuwat Methiwibunwut instructed a Surat Thani land official on December 28 last year to revoke title deeds for public land on the island's Khao Phaeng mountain allegedly obtained illegally by Tan Thaugsuban, son of Suthep Thaugsuban.

The director-general gave the land official, Chamlong Popet, a January 13 deadline to complete the revocation, but the official refused to follow the order, Prompong said.

Prompong said Chamlong had served as caretaker land official since 2009, when the Democrats were in power. He believed some senior Opposition politicians backed Chamlong because he refused to follow the director-general's order to revoke the deeds.

Pheu Thai deputy spokesman Yuthapong Charatsathien denied reports that the move to revoke the deeds had stalled because Wichaidit's family was involved in issuing them. He said he was confident the interior minister would agree to check the complaint when it is submitted today.

Prompong and Yuthapong said they would also file a complaint about alleged corruption in a road-repair project worth Bt13 billion in Buri Ram implemented by the previous government led by Abhisit Vejjajiva. Yuthapong said he had issued an interpellation asking Yongyuth to check on the allegations, but there had been no progress. The official who approved the project, then Local Administration Department director-general Kwanchai Wongnitikorn, has since been promoted to Interior Ministry deputy permanent secretary.