More than 130,000 hectares of land in 16 provinces have been identified by the government as being suitable for distribution to retired military and police personnel and their families, government officials said yesterday.
Last year, the government said it would provide more than 20,000 military and police veterans with land in return for their services to society.
Im Chhun Lim, minister of land management, told officials at a ministerial meeting yesterday that the government had already found more than 130,000 hectares of land suitable for such social land concessions.
“This is a preliminary step…. There will not just be 130,000 hectares, there will be more than that,” Mr Chhun Lim promised.
A statement handed out at yesterday’s meeting said that the land was identified after five inter-ministerial working groups traveled to 22 provinces in March and April. Only 16 of the provinces had land available for the social land concessions, the statement said.
The statement added that 4,000 servicemen—including 3,000 retired military officers and 1,000 retired national police officers—would receive land this year. A further 6,500 military and police families each year will receive land between 2011 and 2013, the statement said.
Sareth Boramy, deputy director-general at the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, said the land identified for the concessions was state-owned land.
“It takes about one month to identify the land in detail,” Mr Boramy said.
Mr Boramy said the land made available to each military or police officer’s family would be a 30-by-40-meter residential plot, a 20-by-50-meter residential plot or one to three hectares of farmland.
He said any of the land that was arable would be used as farmland for the soldiers and police, while the remainder would be used as residential land.
The Land Management Ministry claimed it had handed out social land concessions to roughly 34,000 poor and disabled families between 2002 and 2007 and to 14,523 homeless families between 2007 and 2009.
