A prosecutor filed a lawsuit against caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and six others at the Administrative Court on Wednesday asking the court to order them to pay Bt2.7 million plus interest in overdue payments to a group of 22 farmers from Kanchanaburi province. Another group of farmers will follow suit.
Secretary to Deputy Attorney General Poramate Intarachumnum in his capacity as a lawyer representing Ladawan Niamprayoon and 21 other farmers in the central province of Kanchanaburi joining the government’s rice pledging scheme filed the lawsuit against caretaker premier Yingluck and six state agencies. The lawsuit asked the court to order all seven defendants to pay the farmers Bt2.7 million for the rice they had pledged under the government scheme plus 7.5 per cent annual interest.
The lawsuit named caretaker prime minister Yingluck as first defendant, and six co-defendants including the National Rice Policy Committee, the state-owned Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC), the Commerce Ministry, the Public Warehouse Organisation, the Marketing Organisation for Farmers and the Finance Ministry.
The complainants charged the premier, concurrently chairwoman of the National Rice Policy Committee, and the Committee with monopolising the rice trade or buying an unlimited amount of rice grain at an above the market price. The government’s mismanagement, they alleged, led to heavy losses as the commerce ministry was unable to release rice from stockpiles or exported rice as targetted. That resulted in their failure to pay the complainants the amount of money as stated in the receipts of their pledged rice.
Mr Poramate said the 22 complainants were the first group of farmers to take legal action against the government while another group of 20 farmers from Chai Nat and Sing Buri provinces would file similar suit tomorrow. Document verification is under way for about 500-600 farmers seeking legal assistance from the prosecutors to sue the government.
The senior prosecutor explained that the prosecutors acted as lawyers for farmers to ensure that civil rights would be protected and those farmers will eventually receive their overdue payments from state agencies that fail to honour their agreement.
