Donations to help Thai farmers exceed Bt149m

BANGKOK, March 5 (TNA) - Donations by the public to assist Thai farmers, a number of whom are now rallying in Bangkok and upcountry demanding overdue payment from the official rice-pledging scheme, have exceeded 149 million baht. Luck Wajananawat, President of the state-run Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC), told journalists of the update on Wednesday. Realising hardships faced by local farmers who have sold rice to the government's rice-pledging scheme and have not yet received payment, BAAC has accepted public donations since March 3, 2014. Luck estimated that public donations to help the affected farmers should amount one billion baht by next Monday and the money will be then given to farmers. Luck said BAAC expects that public donations for the purpose should total 20 billion baht eventually and the money could help more than 200,000 affected farmers. Thaworn Senneam, a core leader of the anti-government People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), announced, meanwhile, that his group's legal experts would submit a letter to the Office of the Attorney General, requesting it not to help defend Caretaker Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yingluck Shinawatra after she was accused of corruption in the rice-pledging programme. Thaworn, who is a former MP of the Democrat Party, called for the independent National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) to perform its duties fairly for the sake of public and national interests, after it has formally reported that the official rice-pledging scheme was tainted with corruption.(TNA)