Volunteers urged to suspend services

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has told volunteers to suspend providing haircut, massage and clothes-dyeing services at Sanam Luang to prioritise the movement of people descending on the area to pay their respects to the King.
Deputy BMA Governor Amnuay Nimmano said that of the some 130,000 people going to Sanam Luang each day, about 30,000 were there to pay respects before His Majesty the King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s Royal Urn at the Grand Palace’s Dusit Maha Prasart Throne Hall adjacent the park. The rest used took advantage of services provided by volunteers at Sanam Luang, he said. 
As a result, he said the Joint Administration Centre for Maintaining Peace and Order wanted volunteers providing the services to suspend them to make way for mourners.
As an example, he cited the distribution of meals being adjusted to three sessions a day to promote better order. 
Amnuay also said authorities would act against people who took advantage of mourners such as vendors who sold inappropriate items or services to naive people from the provinces and “volunteer” motorists that charged people.
Meanwhile, Thammasat Uni-versity deputy rector Parinya Thewanarumitkul, the director of the Volunteers for Dad co-ordination centre, revealed that 22,184 people had joined the Volunteers for Dad group to provide services to mourners. 
Most volunteers were involved in cleaning up garbage, arranging donations, providing general services. The others provided medical services, acted as shuttle bus conductors, aided the internal administration and served other functions.
The youngest volunteer was a six-year-old who collected garbage.
Parinya urged people who had set up Sanam Luang mobile kitchens to follow Thammasat University’s mobile kitchen model when serving meals to volunteers. 
He said it provided meals in a self-service style with no plastic or styrofoam containers but plates and spoons that each person must wash themselves to reduce garbage. 
He said the co-ordination centre would campaign trash at Sanam Luang to be reduced by 25 per cent before December 5. 
He said most kitchens there had an issue with disposing of leftover oily water and staff failing to wear an apron and a hat. The centre’s assistant director, Wikorn Phermpuak, said that after tomorrow the centre would issue new volunteer identity cards with a different colour for each day, which would be based on each card carrier’s national identity card or another state-issued card’s 13-digit number. Each volunteer is required to obtain the card before the start of each day. 
From next Sunday, volunteer identity cards will also carry barcodes for easy verification, he said, adding that people should report misbehaving volunteers to the centre or by calling 095-479-7034.
Meanwhile, the Social Development and Human Security Ministry inspector-general, Narong Khongkham, said his office had found 148 homeless people in the past three days at Sanam Luang. 
On Friday night 25 homeless people were located at the park, he said – three of whom were camping overnight to pay respects to the late King.
Narong said officials including psychologists screened the homeless found at the park and sent the ill ones to hospitals, the drunk ones to police stations and those without shelter to Ban Mitmaitree Shelter. Accordingly, the number of homeless found in the area was less each day, he added.
The deputy chief of the First Army Region, Maj-General Thammanoon Withee, said that some 17,000 people had paid their respects before the Royal Urn yesterday from the morning until noon. 
He said there were some 20,000 others queuing, with the centre co-ordinating with the Bureau of Royal Household so all the mourners could pay their respects.