Impeachment filed over scheme

The government faces an impeachment motion filed by opposition MPs over the controversial Bt350-billion water-management scheme.
Backed by 132 MPs, the impeachment notice targets all members in Yingluck Shinawatra’s second Cabinet line-up.
“There are grounds to believe that the Cabinet has engaged in corruption and violated five laws including contravening the Constitution,” Jurin Laksanawisit, the opposition chief whip, said.
The Democrat Party submitted the impeachment bill to Senate Speaker Nikom Wairatpanij yesterday afternoon.
Nikom said he would inform the Senate of the petition and examine the signatures of those supporting it. “I think I should be able to forward the case to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) by July 16,” he said.
Jurin said if the NACC and the Senate ruled against Cabinet ministers in the impeachment process, the politicians who were in the Cabinet at the time of the alleged offence would be punished – even if they don’t hold a Cabinet seat now.
The impeachment threat is another blow to the government and its mega-water scheme. Last week, the Central Administrative Court ruled that dams and other projects must be put on hold until their preparations comply fully with applicable laws. The Constitution requires public participation, environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and health impact assessments (HIAs) for projects with the potential to cause serious impacts on people, their health and their environment.
PM Yingluck Shinawatra has assigned Deputy Prime Minister Phongthep Thepkanjana to head a panel to study the court’s ruling.
“My panel will convene a meeting on July 8,” Phongthep said yesterday.
The panel would determine how to handle water projects or scheme “modules” in line with the court’s ruling and laws, he said, as well as whether to appeal against the ruling.
Phongthep said some projects in the water scheme may, in fact, not be subject to EIAs or HIAs.
Yesterday, some 200 red shirts showed up at the NACC office to submit a letter saying that the anti-graft agency should ascertain first if it has the mandate to act on Srisuwan’s petition.
NACC deputy secretary general Vittaya Arkompitak met with the red shirts and assured them the NACC was a neutral body and it always followed the law.