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The Chana Rakthin Network plans to move back to Government House on Monday where it says more people will join its rally to demand the government halt the Chana industrial park project in Songkhla.
Somboon Khamhang, an adviser to the group, said they had no intention of easing pressure on the government.
“We have no choice but to continue efforts to save our communities. We will move back to Government House on Monday if there is no solution. At least 100 people from the South, and other partners, including the Bang Kloi group will come to join us,” he said.
The network also wants the government to conduct a Strategic Environmental Assessment of the industrial estate development to evaluate if the project will benefit the local community.
Around 50 people from Chana were on Friday camped in front of the United Nation’s headquarters on Ratchadamnoen Road, after being dispersed by police at a protest site near Government House on Monday night that saw 37 people arrested and later released.
Meanwhile, a community group in Songkhla’s Chana district on Friday called on the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre (SBPAC) to scrap planned public hearings on environmental impact assessments (EIAs) for the controversial Chana industrial park project.
The group calling itself “Chumchon Chana Tonbab” submitted a petition with the SBPAC via an assistant to the agency’s secretary Thaworn Boonsri, who travelled from Yala to meet the group’s representatives.
The planned public hearings, organised by TPI Polene Power Plc on the industrial park’s EIAs is scheduled to take place from Monday until Dec 23.
According to Mr Thaworn, the group’s demand was connected to its plan to set up a firm to operate a 1,100-megawatt power plant.
The group held a public hearing attended by more than 10,000 people on July 11 last year and submitted a five-point proposal to the strategic committee on development for the southern border provinces, he said.
The strategic committee agreed that the group would be granted a licence to operate a power plant and sell electricity to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat).
The group decided to ask the SBPAC to cancel the planned hearings and suspend the rezoning of land use until it was granted the licence, he said.
Arthit Madsa-i, deputy mayor of tambon Na Thap, said the group’s application for the power plant licence has not seen much progress however it was unclear how things would develop.
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Source: Bangkok Post