Mahanakan community shuts all four gates to fort

“The four gates of the community are blocked by residents around the clock to make sure that no one can encroach,” Pornthep Buranaburidet, a deputy community leader, said yesterday.

“There were a hundred officials from Phra Nakhon district and the Public Works Department, along with their trucks,” he said.

The attempted demolition of two more houses, after the owners had filed a relocation request to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, was frustrated by a hundred residents who put up man-made barricades in front of the fort’s four gates.

House-owner Srisawad Lekwilai said she and BMA officials could not enter the community because of the blockade outside. 

“I have notified Samranrat police to make a daily note for my own security. 

“I had contacted the BMA in early September for the relocation, but I got obstructed by those opposing the demolition,” she said.

Pornthep said BMA officials were not allowed to do anything in the community.

“Those who want to relocate and demolish their houses can come and talk, but demolitions are forbidden in accordance with the negotiations in early September that concluded that there would be no demolitions until the multilateral committee is set up,” he said. 

There would be no middleman, he added.

Yuttapan Meechai, assistant secretary to the Bangkok governor, said the BMA had no right to form a multilateral panel because the BMA already has a commission working on the matter. 

“We will discuss with the commission to enforce the law on the community’s defiant residents because the BMA has been trying to negotiate with the residents for a settlement on this issue,” he said.

“The obstructed house-owner can file a complaint with police because their private rights were violated. 

“Police can issue summons to the violators, and if they do not answer the summons, they could face charges,” he warned.

The city has already torn down 18 houses while the remaining 43 out of 61 homes have to be removed by this year.

Deputy Bangkok governor Pol General Asawin Kwanmuang said the house owners had the right to dismantle their own homes and those blocking this could face charges.

“All houses must be cleared from the area by the end of this year because everybody must follow the law,” he said. “I don’t understand why the residents think they can disregard the law. They cannot be above the law for their own interest, because the Mahakan Fort is a public area where it is apparently illegal to stop people from entering.”