Phitsanulok governor orders probe into burning of rice
The governor of Phitsanulok has ordered an investigation into the burning of a large number of sacks of rice in the province yesterday.
A large but unspecified number of sacks of rice were discovered, mostly burnt although some of were not fully destroyed. They revealed the green print initials of the Marketing Organisation for Farmers (MOF) and were marked as off-season rice.
The burnt rice sacks were discovered by the roadside on Asia Highway Number 11, parallel to an irrigation canal in Wat Bot district of the province. Printed papers stating “fifth set” of off-season rice for 2008 of the pledging scheme for the year with details describing it as 5 per cent broken rice received between October 14-16, 2008, a total of 19,950 sacks, were also found.
Many of the burnt and unburnt rice have now caused sanitary pollution for nearby villagers.
Mee Tangnoi, 63, a farmer with six rai of land next to the burnt sacks of rice, said he saw workers unloading the sacks of rice since July and a tractor was deployed to pave the rice. He said he wasn’t paying much attention because the trucks belonged to a rice storage firm, which owns the land next to his farm. However, after heavy rains last week the rice had rotted and polluted, foul-smelling water began seeping into his field.
Phitsanulok Governor Preecha Ruangchan said he has instructed related agencies, particularly the MOF, to visit the site and investigate the origin of the rice. Officials have also been instructed to coordinate with Kaset Paisarnboonkit Co, which owns the land, to find out if there was any corruption involved with the incident.
Sources said the rice was destroyed because it was spoiled during the floods and there was nothing irregular about it.
In a related development, Democrat Party Phitsanulok MP Warong Dechgitvigrom on Facebook called on the Commerce Ministry to clarify the matter.
“Don’t mistake the picture for a land fill but it happened to be 5 per cent [broken grain] rice from Sukhothai and Phitsanulok… The point to ponder is why it was brought to be burnt there because even bad or rotten rice still has value, say, for making alcohol, fertiliser, animal feed or starch… Let us try to think about it,” the MP wrote.
RELATED