Burmese authorities continue to extort money in Three Pagoda Pass

Loa Htaw, IMNA
March 1, 2006

Fed up of having to dole out money to the military junta authorities for various reasons, residents of the Three Pagoda Pass Township (TPPT) have begun to complain.

Yesterday, TPPT authorities announced that vehicle owners (cars and motorbikes owners) have to pay for repairing roads. According to the announcement, each car owner has to pay 300 to 1,000 Baht depending on the kind of car one uses. Motorcycle owners have to pay 50 Baht, said Nai Cho a motorcycle taxi driver in the township.

“If the authorities find we have failed to pay for road construction we will be heavily fined” Nai Cho added.

Last week, TPPT authorities collected money from residents for replacing battalions and for supporting high school students in town.

Nai Cho said, “While they claim the collection is for road construction, we doubt whether it is for their pocket or for development of the town.”

TPPT has many lines of vehicles called Rehmonnya, Thanmyantu, Tawmapa and Panyagone. Every vehicle owner has to join one of the lines and pay money to the line every month for the construction.

Nai Hamar said “I don't understand why we have to keep paying for the construction again and again because we always pay for the construction in our line.”

“The authorities did not spend all the money that got from us for road construction” said the vehicle owner.

“If they had spent all the money the road condition would have been good” he added.

The TPP township has about 3, 000 motorcycles and 300 cars. The residents believe that the authorities would collect at least 500,000 Baht this time.