Thai PM orders new ministers to speed up flood prevention projects

BANGKOK, January 24 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has ordered concerned ministers, especially all the newly-appointed ones who started working Tuesday, to follow up and speed up inundation prevention plans in flood-prone areas nationwide to avert any repeated massive flooding, like the one late last year. Deputy Government Spokesman Anusorn Iamsa-ard told journalists that the prime minister has instructed the concerned ministers to visit the flood-prone areas in the country's northern and central regions from February 13-17 to speed up implementation their flood prevention projects, with newly-appointed Minister Attached to the Prime Minister's Office Niwatthamrong Bunsongphaisan assigned to arrange the ministers’ trips. The deputy spokesman said that Premier Yingluck also wants her ministers to accelerate the dredging of waterways and the maintenance of sluice gates, with transparency always ensured, and her government will review the tasks which cannot be finished within two weeks, and that the Pheu Thai premier also ordered the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) to quickly spend an earlier allocated budget of 1.9 billion baht on dredging waterways in the capital and she will later lead journalists to inspect progress of the projects. Chalitrat Chantharubeksa, another Deputy Government Spokesman, acknowledged, meanwhile, that out of a flood rehabilitation budget worth 120 billion baht, 93 billion baht has been disbursed and the Thai government will recall delayed projects from responsible parties and will reassign them to other agencies. (TNA)