News from Thailand – April 29, 2014

Another fire at a landfill. On Sunday, a fire broke out at a 10 rai landfill in Lam Luk Ka (Pathum Thani). The fire was largely under control this morning.

The newspaper gives no further details and limits itself to a photo, so we do not learn anything about any toxic fumes, such as last month in a previous fire in Phraeksa (Samut Prakan), which raged for a week. Whether the landfill is legal or illegal; the newspaper does not write it.

There is, however, a lot of attention for the Pollution Control Department's plan to create a legal regulation that makes waste separation by households mandatory. According to PCD head Wichien Jungrungruang, ninety percent of the waste can be recycled, which means that only 10 percent needs to be sent to landfills. But Wichien does not expect that regulation to come into force within three years. In the meantime, local authorities should encourage people to separate their waste.

Thailand has 466 legal landfill sites and at least 2.024 illegal ones. Households produce 26,38 million tons of waste annually; the industry adds another 44,25 million tons.

– Three police officers were killed and three injured when a 25-year-old postgraduate student from Bangkok University rammed into a police station on Bomromratchonnee Road with a car (photo home page). The driver was driving his father's car, a Mitsubishi Pajero, and lost control while overtaking. He explained that he was not familiar with the car.

According to a police officer who narrowly escaped death, the student was driving at high speed. Two of his colleagues also managed to jump away in time. The three officers who lost their lives were dragged about thirty meters by car. It finally came to a stop after colliding with three police cars.

The three agents will be posthumously promoted to a higher rank; the families of both them and the injured officers are entitled to compensation of 110.000 to 1,2 million baht. The driver has been arrested. He will be arraigned today before the Taling Chan Provincial Court, which will decide on possible bail. The police have not yet taken a position on this.

– Were the police (once again) too eager to have a suspect in their hands? You would think so, because the woman who was arrested in Chiang Mai on Sunday on suspicion of involvement in two bombings (one in 2010 in Min Buri and one on March 29 in Nonthaburi) has already been released on bail.

The evidence that the Department of Special Investigation found against her was insufficient, DSI head Tarit Pengdith must admit. It just hints that she was in the house, where bomb-making materials were found. During questioning by the police, she maintained her innocence.

Police are still investigating whether they can find evidence of her involvement in the 2010 attack, which killed four people and injured nine others. An arrest warrant had been issued against the woman since that year, but she had been a fugitive ever since. The newspaper adds that 2010 was the year of the red shirt riots, without further explaining what that has to do with this case.

– The North, Northeast, East and the central part of Thailand, including Bangkok, have to take into account strong winds and hailstorms in some places until tomorrow. The winds can be life-threatening, the Meteorological Department says, and cause extensive damage to property.

Residents of Kalasin province already got a taste of this yesterday. One hundred and fifty houses were damaged by the strong wind. Worst hit was the hamlet of Baan Kumhai in Muang district. The wind uprooted a number of trees that fell on houses. A 63-year-old woman says that the roof of her house was blown away along with thirty sacks of rice and fertilizer. The area has already been hit by storms five times this month.

In tambon Sawaijeek (Buri Ram), 61 houses were damaged yesterday; two were completely destroyed. Bangkok also had to deal with the summer showers yesterday. A lot of rain fell in some places, causing a nuisance for traffic and commuters.

– Now hurry up government with the National Saving Fund that was already formed by law in 2011, but still has not been activated. Union activist Arunee Sritho believes the upcoming reform talks provide a good opportunity to raise the issue.

The savings fund is intended for elderly people who fall outside the scope of other schemes, such as the Social Security Scheme. Last year, a network went to the administrative court because the government does not seem willing to activate the fund.

According to Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong (Finance), the fund overlaps the existing Social Security Scheme; that problem is being studied, which would explain the delay. The explanation that the fund is an initiative of the Abhisit government, which preceded the Yingluck government, seems more plausible.

– Profitable business: counterfeiting ATM cards and using them to withdraw money. Five Malaysians earned 50 million baht in Hat Yai (Songkhla), but this has come to an end with their arrest. They ran into the lamp on Sunday when they withdraw money at an ATM of the Siam Commercial Bank in a shopping center.

Police seized 732 counterfeit cards, 500.000 baht in cash, an MSR609 card swiping device and a laptop computer. Most cards contained data from cards issued in France. The Malaysians also skimmed cards in Hat Yai. The money went to gang leaders in Malaysia; they themselves received ten percent. The gentlemen have also been active in Krabi, Trang and Phetchaburi. The police had been following them for a month.

– From Thursday state hospitals will give influenza vaccinations. Healthcare workers and people in risk groups (including the elderly, pregnant women, the chronically ill) do not have to pay anything; for others the jab is not free. They can also go to private hospitals. Usually, the number of flu cases rises sharply during the rainy season between July and September. The vaccination campaign will last until July 31.

– Mistake! A woman in Ayutthaya who received an electricity bill of 445.396,85 baht can sleep peacefully again. The provincial electricity company has admitted to having made an 'administrative' error. The correct amount was 532,5 baht.

– Villagers from Haeng in Lampang blocked part of the Lampang-Phayao highway yesterday afternoon in protest against the arrival of a lignite mine. The governor of Lampang has been asked not to grant a license to mine lignite over an area of ​​1.000 rai near their village.

Since 2010, villagers have opposed mining on an area in Mae Ngao Forest Reserve protected by National Forest Reserve law. They also say that the company's environmental impact assessment is flawed because they were not consulted. In 2012, they accused the company of buying farmland under a false pretense. The company claimed to plant eucalyptus trees for the paper industry.

The action ended in the evening after hours of negotiations with representatives from the Lampang Industrial Council, the Lampang Nature Resources and Environment Office and the Lampang Forest Office.

– The warehouse of President Bakery Co in Chiang Mai was bombarded with two grenades yesterday morning. Two vans were damaged in the accident. The attack may have a political motive because one of the shareholders is a staunch anti-government protester.

In March this year, grenades were thrown at a PTT gas station and a warehouse of Singha beer in Chiang Mai.

– A sergeant and a student were arrested at a checkpoint in Huai Khwang (Bangkok) on Sunday night. In their pickup truck, the police found weapons and a map of the Lumpini park, where the protest movement has camped.

– The special emergency law for Bangkok and some surrounding areas, which would expire on Thursday, will be extended by sixty days. The government believes that developments are underway that could lead to confrontations between red shirts and anti-government demonstrators and conflicts. There are also fears of a 'third party' that could make a mess. The oversight body is the Capo: Center for the Administration of Peace and Order.

– The anti-government movement yesterday visited the office of the Thailand Tobacco Monopoly in Klong Toey.

– The postponed extraordinary meeting of the Senate can finally take place. After weeks of bickering between the Senate and the government, the government has finally prepared a Royal Decree with a date between May 2 and May 10.

To my surprise, I now read that the main item on the agenda is the appointment of a member of the Administrative Court and the NACC and not the removal of the presidents of both chambers, on the recommendation of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), which was mentioned earlier . There is no mention of that in today's post.

Both presidents made a mistake last year when dealing with the bill to amend the Senate by breaking off the deliberations prematurely, so that opposition members were not given a chance to speak. In addition, the Constitutional Court found that the proposal was unconstitutional.

The appointment of Supa Piyajitti, permanent deputy secretary of the Ministry of Finance, as a member of the NACC is a sensitive one because she opened up last year about the corruption in the rice mortgage system and the not-nauseous costs.

– Saiyud Kerdphol, leader of the Rattha Bukkhon group, a group of retired army officers, admits to falsely saying that Prem Tinsulanonda, president of the Privy Council (the king's advisory body), would be willing to ask the king for advice on the current political crisis. This would prevent the king from interfering directly in politics, which is not permitted. Saiyud, who spoke to Prem on Friday, says he misinterpreted Prem's attitude. That turned out to be one Close can help van Prem contradicted Saiyud's claim.

Saiyud sees little point in party leader Abhisit's initiative to break the political impasse through talks. He still wants to ask the king for advice, because only the king can solve the political crisis. Critics say that Saiyud embarrasses the king with this plan.

www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post

More news in:

Surprising: Prime Minister Yingluck supports Abhisit initiative