BANGKOK, June 28 – As monsoon season has started in Thailand, the National Council for Peace and Order(NCPO) has ordered seven state agencies to tackle and solve flood and drought problems by the end of September, or the end of this fiscal 2014, said Gen Chatchai Sarikalya, deputy chief supervising economic affairs of NCPO, on Saturday.
The seven agencies included Department of Water Resources, Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, Department of Royal Irrigation, Department of Groundwater Resources, Marine Department, Office of the National Water and Flood Management Policy, Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning.
Speaking to journalists after a meeting on water management, Gen Chatchai said budget allocated to the seven agencies towards water management for the fiscal 2014 still had Bt17 billion left.
The meeting decided that those agencies should be allowed to spend slightly more than Bt13 billion to tackle the problems during the remainder of fiscal 2014 while the rest of more than Bt3 billion would go towards new projects in fiscal 2015, he said.
Gen Chatchai said the military was prepared to provide assistance to those agencies and believed there should not be any problems.
Also, the meeting agreed to set up a water management committee as well as preparing a new budget for solving the issues for fiscal 2015, he said.
The state-run National Economic and Social Development Board would be responsible for appointing members of the committee while the NCPO would give approval within 10 days.
On the recent disappearance of a large amount of rice from a warehouse, bought from farmers by the previous government under the rice-pledging programme, Gen Chatchai said the rice inspection committee would perform its duty in its probe in a straightforward manner.
