Thai farmers file case against caretaker government with NACC

BANGKOK, February 7 (TNA) - Representatives of farmers from seven central Thai provinces have submitted a petition to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), seeking its action against the caretaker administration for its delayed payment to farmers participating in its rice-pledging scheme. Songpol Poonsawat, chief of the farmers council in Ang Thong Province, told reporters on Friday that he and other representatives have petitioned to the NACC, on behalf of all affected farmers, at the anti-graft commission head office on the outskirts of Bangkok to seek its assistance, following a 4-5 month-delay in the government’s payment to farmers joining in the rice-pledging scheme. Songpol said that the government now owes farmers about 120 billion baht totally and it has failed to pay the affected farmers although it promised to do so by January 31, 2014. The protest farmers set a deadline for the caretaker government until February 15, 2014, or they would take further action against the caretaker administration. NACC Deputy Secretary-General Witthaya Arkompitak revealed that the farmers' petition will be raised at an NACC meeting on February 11 so that a task force will be set up to look into farmers' problems in all affected areas before a further action will be decided on the case. Prasit Boonchuey, President of the Thai Rice Farmers Association, vowed that protesting farmers, assembling in front of the Commerce Ministry since February 6, will stay put at the building, also located on the outskirts of Bangkok, until they receive a clear answer from the caretaker government on the payment under the rice-pledging scheme, warning that more farmers would join the protest. Disgruntled farmers in Nakhon Phanom in the Thai Northeast, in the meantime, gathered at the Third Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge that connects the province with Thakhek town in Laos, threatening to close the bridge if they would not receive the overdue payment from the government within seven days. But the situation in Phichit Province in the Lower Thai North was different, as local farmers were receiving money from the state-run Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) for their rice harvested during the 2013 -2014 season and sold to the government under the same programme. As the caretaker government is facing a problem in borrowing money, amounting to about 130 billion baht, to pay for farmers, Suthep Thaugsuban, secretary-general of the anti-government People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), led protesters to march on Bangkok streets to, as he claimed, receive money donated by people to assist the affected farmers. Meanwhile, Caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck and Defence Minister posted a message on her Facebook, noting that domestic political unrest over the past three–four months has posed a problem for her administration to pay farmers participating in the rice-pledging scheme, but her caretaker governemnt has ordered concerned agencies to accelerate resolving the crux, namely the Finance Ministry is finding lending sources legally allowed for a caretaker administration's roles, while the Commerce Ministry will soon open an auction in a bid to release rice stored at warehouses to enable her caretaker government to pay the affected farmers. (TNA)