Court to rule on water-scheme injunction today
The Central Administrative Court will today hold a special hearing to determine whether to halt the bidding process for the government's Bt350-billion water-management and flood-prevention scheme.
Qualified business groups are scheduled to tender bids for the projects by tomorrow (May 3). The Water and Flood Management Commission (WFMC) earlier suggested it would announce the bidding results a week later.
Yesterday, Stop Global Warming Association president Srisuwan Janya and a lawyer represented 45 people in filing a complaint with the court against Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, the Strategic Committee for Water Resources Management (SCWRM), the WFMC and the National Water and Flood Management Policy Committee over the project.
According to the complainants, Yingluck and the SCWRM did not adhere to procedures in creating the water-management master plan, causing all subsequent activities relating to it to be suspiciously rushed. For example, they said, a press conference on the master plan was held on January 20 last year. Six days later, the Cabinet approved a decree authorising the Finance Ministry to seek a massive loan to finance the projects called for under the plan.
The complainants asked the Central Administrative Court to nullify the master plan. They also requested that an injunction be ordered first to ensure the bidding process for the master plan is suspended.
Meanwhile, the operator of Thaiflood.com yesterday lodged a complaint with the National Anti-Corruption Commission against Yingluck, her Cabinet and WFMC accusing them of abusing their authority. “We have acted on behalf of the public sector,” Poramate Minsiri said.
