ID :
317765
Mon, 02/17/2014 - 15:01
Auther :

BAAC starts paying Thai farmers for pledged rice

BANGKOK, February 17 (TNA) - The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Co-operatives (BAAC) has started paying for pledged rice, as Thailand's caretaker government has delayed paying them under the rice-pledging scheme for months. Crowds of farmers flocked to all 14 BAAC branches in Phichit Province in the Lower Thai North on Monday morning to receive money for the rice they had pledged with the government months ago. BAAC was also paying 1.25 million baht to first 12 local farmers in Muang District of the central Lop Buri Province, out of more than 1,000 rice growers in the province who have waited for their money, worth a total of over 20 million baht. Meanwhile, farmers--who had rallied in front of the Ministry of Commerce on the outskirts of Bangkok for days--moved to the nearby Office of the Permanent Secretary for Defence in Muang Thong Thani, a temporary office of Caretaker Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, to demand a meeting with the caretaker prime minister. Some farmers used a farm truck to hit barbed wire in front of the Office of the Permanent Secretary for Defence and briefly clashed with soldiers who guard the place. Caretaker Commerce Minister Niwatthamrong Bunsongphaisan and Caretaker Finance Minister Kittirat Na-Ranong came out to meet the farmers, instead. Prasit Boonchoey, President of the Farmers Thai Rice Association, said a reliable figure of the caretaker government had told him that the caretaker government would pay all farmers who had pledged rice with the administation within 45 days and the payment had started. Prasit announced when farmers received their money, they would leave the Ministry of Commerce right away. (TNA)

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