Seven Thai agencies assigned to tackle flood, drought problems

BANGKOK, June 28 (TNA) - As the monsoon season has started in Thailand, the army-led National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has ordered seven state agencies to tackle and solve flood and drought problems within the end of September, or the end of the 2014 fiscal year. An NCPO deputy chief supervising economic affairs, Colonel Chatchai Sarikalya, told journalists of the move on Saturday morning, after the end of a meeting on water management. Colonel Chatchai said that a state budget allocated to the seven agencies on water management for the 2014 fiscal year is still 17 billion baht left and the meeting, therefore, resolved that those agencies should be allowed to spend slightly more than 13 billion baht to tackle the problems during the rest of the 2014 fiscal year, while the rest of more than three billion baht will be spent on new projects in the next 2015 fiscal year. Colonel Chatchai revealed that the meeting also agreed to set up a water management committee and to prepare a new budget for solving the cruxes for the 2015 fiscal year, while the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) will be responsible for appointing members of the committee for the NCPO's approval within 10 days. (TNA)