Thai government sued for ineffective flood management

BANGKOK, December 21 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and heads of 11 government agencies were on Wednesday sued by a civic network, the Stop Global Warming Association, for their alleged failure in coping with the country's massive floods this year. Srisuwan Janya, president of the association, represented 352 affected people to file the lawsuit with the Environmental Division of the Administrative Court in Bangkok, demanding the accused to compensate for flood damages, ranging from 100,000-3,000,000 baht for each flood victim and up to 98 million baht for each flood-damaged firm, and to work out an effective flood prevention plan in the future. Apart from Premier Yingluck, the lawsuit also targeted the director of the government-run Flood Relief Operation Centre (FROC), the agriculture and cooperatives minister, the interior minister, the director-general of the Royal Irrigation Department and the Bangkok governor. It also demanded that the prime minister raise a flood relief fund to cope with future floods. Meanwhile, the government has offered energy assistance to flood-affected people and business firms, with three main energy aid projects launched by the prime minister and Energy Minister Pichai Naripthaphan on Wednesday. They include a project on enhancing energy efficiency for the workplaces of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), another project on boosting energy-saving in office buildings and factories of the local private sector and the other project on the government's campaigning for energy-saving by households and organizing nationwide fairs for providing affected consumers in 28 provinces with energy-saving products from Dec 27, 2011, to Jan 4, 2012, with such the event in the capital set to be held at the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre (BITEC); while those in the other provinces to be held at provincial halls. (TNA)