Court rejects lawsuit against Yingluck over Bt350bn water scheme
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The Supreme Administrative Court on Friday dismissed a lawsuit against former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and other water-related panels on the Bt350-billion water-management scheme, saying it is just a plan which has not yet sent impacts on the pu
Srisuwan Janya, president of Stop Global Warming Association and 44 plaintiffs, filed last year the lawsuit against Yingluck, the National Water and Flood Policy Commission, the Water and Flood Management Commission and the Strategic Committee for Water Resources Management. In the lawsuit they said they wanted the mega-project to be cancelled on grounds that the plan had failed to comply with the Constitution and that construction under the plan would cause adverse environmental and social impacts.
Srisuwan earlier said he believed this verdict would go in the same direction as the ruling issued by the Central Administrative Court on June 27, 2013. The previous ruling said the government had to first carry out environmental and health impact assessments for projects that could be harmful to the environment and communities, he said.
The Constitution's Articles 57 (2) and 67 (2) also require that the authorities carry out environmental impact assessments and health impact assessment before implementing certain schemes.
