Meikhtila local official sells off communal land

(DVB)–Residents of Meikhtila's Yadanar Maung ward have complained that a local Peace and Development Council official has been selling unregistered land near a local creek for his own profit.

A local from Meikhtila in Mandalay division told DVB that Yadanar Maung ward PDC member Win Myint was selling off land on the banks of Sithu creek to locals for between two and three hundred thousand kyat for each plot.

He is also reportedly renting out plots of land for 3000 kyat a month.

"He is selling the land around the creek, including one stretch owned by the local community hall [for] around 300,000 kyat," the Meikhtila resident said.

"There have been a few problems because he sold some stretches of land to new buyers when others had already paid him for the land, and he refused to give them their money back," he said.

"A lot of people want to report what Win Myint has been doing to senior government officials but they don't know how to go about it."

The resident said Win Myint had recently evicted a couple who were living in a house on the land, which they had bought a long time before from previous WPDC officials.

"The house owner agreed but he couldn't move out immediately as he was having trouble finding a new place," the local resident said.

"Win Myint was disappointed and sent his relatives to ransack the house," he said.

"His brother-in-law went into the house and broke the owner's possessions while his mother and his sisters beat up the man's wife. She was in hospital for about a month."

The resident said Win Myint's sisters were also running a gambling business in the ward, which had led to an increase in crime in the neighbourhood, particularly burglaries.

Meikhtila police station and Yadanar Maung WPDC were unavailable for comment

. Reporting by Naw Say Phaw