News from Thailand – November 20, 2014

The city of Bangkok yesterday kicked off a series of hearings on the construction of a monorail link between Watcharaphol Road and the Rama IX Bridge. Design and feasibility study have been completed, but changes are still possible, says Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra. Decisions are made in February or March.

According to the governor, a monorail is the most suitable option for a large city given the environmental and construction implications. The line is known as Gray Line and is part of a master plan for Bangkok and neighboring provinces approved by the cabinet in 2010.

The 40 kilometer long line will have 38 stations. The route is divided into three sections. The section between Watcharaphol and the Rama IX bridge measures 16 kilometres. The construction will cost 26 billion baht. No land needs to be expropriated for this section.

– Preference is given to loans from domestic institutions, but if these yield insufficient returns, foreign institutions are called upon. The Japan International Cooperation Agency and a Chinese bank have already offered to provide loans for the expansion of Suvarnabhumi Airport. But our own people first, says the Minister of Transport.

Today he will visit Suvarnabhumi and the Airport Rail Link, the light rail connection between the airport and the center of Bangkok, to be updated. The expansion includes 28 new ones parking bay and the construction of a new terminal. As a result, the airport's capacity will increase from 45 to 65 million passengers per year.

- No The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 in the Scala and Lido cinemas. The film screening is used by the League of Liberal Thammasat for Democracy to protest against the junta, which Apex, which operates both complexes, finds undesirable.

The league is handing out free tickets for the premiere in Scala under the motto 'Raise Three Fingers, Bring Popcorn and Go to the Theatre'. The three-finger gesture is borrowed from the film and was previously used as a sign of protest against the takeover of power by the lower ranks. And banned by that same army.

– The Lawyers Council of Thailand (LCT) does not understand why the police of the Bang Pong Pang agency released the two Americans who wanted to send human organs to the US.

The LCT urges that procedures for the arrest of foreign suspects be tightened up. "The police may want to treat foreigners with courtesy, but everyone should be equal before the law," says the LCT chairman.

The police released the Americans because, says the head of police division 5, Customs was unreachable and therefore it could not be determined whether they had violated the Customs Act. In addition, they had no criminal record.

According to the documents accompanying the packages, intercepted by DHL, there would have been toys. It has since emerged that the organs had been stolen from two museums of the Siriraj hospital, but the two birds have flown. They have fled to Cambodia.

Police suspect the Yankees did not buy the organs from the market, as they have stated, but stole them themselves.

– The Royal Irrigation Department is prepared to scrap the controversial Mae Wong dam if there are sufficient alternatives. Opinions differ widely about the usefulness of the dam. The RID is in favour, the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation has objections and environmental activists, united in the Seub Nakhasathien Foundation, are adamantly against.

Yesterday, a panel that was supposed to make a decision on the health and environmental impact assessment that was done for the dam failed to reach agreement. It has been decided to have an independent organization look at the pros and cons.

The foundation has submitted an alternative proposal that would be cheaper and more effective. This would spare Mae Wong National Park and prevent flooding.

– Being in different places in Pattani and Yala banners threatened with more attacks on Buddhists and teachers.

– For the sixteenth time, the lawyer of Somyos Prueksakasemsuk will try to get him released on bail. Somyos is accused of lèse-majesté over two articles in the bimonthly magazine Voice of Taksin of which he is editor.

– Followers of the late monk Luangta Maha Bua Yannasampanno don't think it's a good idea when Buddhist abbots and senior monks get financial control. This proposal was made by the well-known monk-activist Phra Bhuddha Issara. He wants the new constitution to control the finances of temples and monks. The opponents think the proposal violates religious rules. They point out that the temples do not receive tax money but donations from believers.

– The Bangkok police yesterday handed out 700 fines to motorcyclists who drove on footpaths.

– The US yesterday officially turned over 554 ancient and prehistoric items stolen years ago, most of them in Bang Chiang, a village that dates back to the Bronze Age (home page photo). The transfer was first discussed in 2009. Returned are pottery, bronze ornaments, bronze tools, beads, stones, adzes and sandstone molds. They were located in more than XNUMX private institutions in California and Illinois.

– The relatives of a traffic victim who became disabled due to a medical error in the Phrae Provincial hospital, will receive compensation of 3,1 million baht. This was decided by the Supreme Court yesterday. The ruling ends an eight-year legal process. Initially, the hospital had offered 8 baht.

www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post

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