RE: Need Law Expert on Public Property Protection Law - 1963/4 Myanmar

[Vicky Bowman]

Oliver Soe Thet, an...@myanmar.com.mm owner of Laguna Lodge in Ngapali is looking for some points on the  Public Property Protection Law - 1963/4,  and in particular Article 3 of the Myanmar “ Public Property Protection Law “ of 1963  to see whether it could be used to take action against embezzlement of public property where this constitutes beach sand, mangroves etc. A 2015 California appeal court ruling stopped a 15 years sand mining contract in San Francisco Bay as ‘it harms Peoples Public Property’.

 

Currently the 2008 Coastal Beach Directives ban hotels for using beach sand for construction but this does not extend to all construction.  The 2006  The Conservation of Water Resources and Rivers Law  (currently under amendment permits the Water Resources Directorate to ‘(g) issu[e] recommendation to the relevant government department and organization after scrutiny as to whether or not the waterways of the rivers-creeks can be affected adversely, on the application to grant permit for business of sand suction, sand dredging, sand excavating, rivers shingle suction, panning for gold, gold mineral dredging or extracting resources in river-creek boundary, bank boundary and waterfront boundary’; But it makes no mention of beach sand.

 

Could the Penal Code be used to prosecute sand-miners?