Pheu Thai slams mobile cabinet trips
The Pheu Thai Party has taken the government to task as it questions whether the latest mobile cabinet meeting this week was worth the budget spent organising it.
The aims of the cabinet retreat to Suphan Buri and Ayutthaya, which ended on Tuesday, remain unclear, said Pheu Thai acting deputy spokesman Anusorn Iamsa-ard.
He asked yesterday whether the achievements made at the meetings in the two Central Plains provinces justified the budget spent arranging the retreat as the ministers could have stayed in Bangkok and met there to save money.
“Was it a mere strategic move to shore up the waning popularity of the government?” he said. The regime has not released the cost of organising the two-day cabinet retreat.
Mr Anusorn said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha attended a local folk singing show and was spotted driving a rice-ploughing machine. “Were these the highlights of the retreat, which may have overshadowed the essence of the meeting?” the Pheu Thai acting deputy spokesman said.
From what he had witnessed, many people were disappointed the meeting did not produce any new measures to stimulate the economy and help the farming sector.
At the meeting, the cabinet approved in principle an Agriculture Ministry plan to proceed with a 17.6-billion-baht flood control canal in Ayutthaya to help limit the impact of massive flooding and economic losses in the central region. The plan calls for the construction of a 23km canal from Bang Ban district to Bang Sai district in Ayutthaya, a two-lane road along both sides, and sluice gates, said government spokesman Col Atisith Chainuvati. It is known as the Bang Ban-Bang Sai canal.
The government said it would help tackle water management for the central provinces, from the Chao Phraya reservoir in Chai Nat down to the Gulf of Thailand. The canal’s primary function is to divert floodwater away from inner parts of Ayutthaya at 1,200 cubic metres per second, he said.
More than 220,000 rai of farmland in five districts of Ayutthaya and Pa Mok district in Ang Thong province would be spared from severe flooding in the future, he said.