The Ministry of Interior has decided to establish a new village in Battambang province to accommodate a burgeoning population. The village, named “Prey Talonh Village”, is located in Bavel district and commune as was requested by the provincial administration.
Pursuant to the prakas on the Establishment of a Village in Battambang province, signed by interior minister Sar Kheng on October 22, the “Prey Talonh Village” is born out of a separation from Bavel commune’s Tumnup Teuk, Kampong Chhnang 1 and Steung Dach villages.
The proclamation added that the structure and management system of the new village will be in accordance with instruction No 004 dated March 17, 2006, of the interior ministry on the procedure for selection of new village chiefs, changing village chiefs, appointment of the village chief assistant and the roles and responsibilities of village chiefs.
Battambang provincial Department of Information director Sous Sopheak told The Post that establishing the new village was due to population growth and for ease of management.
“Due to a high population density, we proposed to separate the villages to have sufficient capacity for management,” he said.
Sopheak said the interior ministry also created a new commune called Bourvel commune, which was separated from Bavel commune and district.
Battambang province has a population of more than 1.3 million people and consists of over 800 villages, 102 communes, 13 districts and one town.
Korn Savang, monitoring and advocacy coordinator for the Committee for Free and Fair Election in Cambodia (Comfrel), previously said the establishment of communes was good for the sub-national administration.
“The establishment of communes depends on the number of people, the so-called population density at the local level. If the population is large, it is difficult to control, so they create more communes. But for me, this is not based on or dependent on any law that talks about the population number or territory, we haven’t seen such limitations,” he said.
“If we create more communes which are not in proportion to the population, it will put pressure on the national budget and need more people to do this work,” he said.
