Nineteen illegal resort and guesthouse operators at Phu Tab Berk mountainous retreat were given seven more days to pack up their belongings after which officials will carry on with the demolition of the illegal premises.
Petchabun governor Bandhit Theveethivarak said Monday that he could not accept the operators’ demand for the authorities to stop the demolition and to work out a compromise.
However, he said he was willing to grant the illegal operators a seven-day reprieve so they can pack up their belongings before officials move in to carry on dismantling the illegally-built resorts and guesthouses.
About 300 Hmong tribesmen, several of them guesthouse operators, staged a protest against the demolition on Saturday forcing the officials to move heavy machinery out of the mountainous retreat.
A meeting on Monday scheduled by the governor and the illegal operators was attended by a village headman and the officials led by the governor. None of the operators showed up.
The headman, Wanchai Chayarom, claimed that the villagers, most of them Hmong tribesmen, did not attend the meeting because they were afraid they might be arrested. He proposed that the meeting should be held at Phu Tab Berk and that the villagers should be given a notice three days in advance.
