Four-party panel to visit Map Ta Phut estate on 5-7 Dec

RAYONG, 29 November 2009 (NNT) – A four-party committee in charge of resolving the problems surrounding the Map Ta Phut industrial estate will visit the eastern province of Rayong next week.

Rayong governor, Sayumporn Limthai stated that the newly-appointed four-party committee chaired by Former Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun is scheduled to travel to the Map Ta Phut industrial estate to gather information and listen to overall problems from different groups of local residents from 5 to 7 December. He said the province was preparing to present the reports containing problems and complaints from local people to the four-party panel for consideration.

The government has initially given nods to a 270 million THB budget for tackling accumulated garbage, said the governor, adding that the Cabinet would approve additional budgets next week for solving water sources and health problems as the shortage of drinking water still prevailed in the area.

The Administrative Court’s injunction came after relevant environmental agencies and local residents residing in the industrial estate had lodged a complaint with the court seeking an emergency hearing and an injunction to temporarily suspend all 76 planned projects at Map Ta Phut industrial estate due to mounting concerns over the environmental effects and the people’s health problems.

The government later asked the Office of the Attorney-General (OAG) to appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court for the revocation of the injunction, claiming that all the investment projects have passed the health and environment assessment test as required by the constitution and have yielded no environmental impacts.