Yingluck tells provincial governors to step up
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Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra spoke to provincial governors via video conferencing yesterday to tell them that they needed to ensure efficient water management, come up proper solutions and deliver help.
“You are based in the provinces you are working for, and you should know have a proper idea of the problems,” Yingluck said, adding that the governors should not give people a chance to break the law.
“You have to explain the situation to the protesters and create a better understanding,” she said. “Solve the problems. Don’t leave them unsolved for me to read about them in the newspapers.”
She also told the governors to ensure that relevant officials explain how the compensation s is calculated. People have been complaining that the compensation for last year’s flood crisis is being calculated unfairly to favour only a few people.
Last year’s flood crisis affected millions of people, devastating vast areas of farmland and submerging seven industrial estates. The government has set up a budget for compensation and has launched several flood-prevention projects.
Yingluck said she and her Cabinet would visit several provinces next week to follow up on the progress of these projects. The prime minister is stepping up flood-prevention efforts because the rainy season has already started, leaving Krabi, Phuket, Ranong, Chumphon and Surat Thani inundated.
Natural Resources and Environment Minister Preecha Rengsomboonsuk yesterday visited flood-hit people in Ranong to hand out relief items.
In Sukhothai, more than 100 people yesterday destroyed parts of a temporary dyke put up to accommodate canal-dredging operations. The farmers said they had to tear down the dyke because otherwise more than 50,000 rai of their paddy fields would be destroyed.
“This problem has emerged because it has started raining before the canal-dredging operations can be completed,” a farmer said.
