Barkar Nash (Page 898)

Tel Aviv to facilitate their plans to return

Israel has assured the government that all Thai workers who chose to leave the country due to the conflict with Hamas will be able to return once the war ends.

However, Israel’s Ambassador to Thailand, Orna Sagiv, said at a media roundtable on Monday on the issue of the Israel-Hamas war that Tel Aviv has yet to receive any updates on the condition of Thai hostages.

“From what I hear, one of the main problems is that the Hamas leader wakes up every day and changes his mind, which is also a problem because it affects the negotiations. But again, I believe it is better to keep that negotiation quiet in order to help them,” she said.

Ms Sagiv said Israel has been calling for the immediate release of all hostages regardless of their nationality. The government, she said, is prioritising the rescue of foreign hostages so they can return to their homeland as soon as possible.

When asked about the security of Thais who chose to stay behind despite the conflict, the Israeli ambassador said the 22,000 Thais who didn’t want to be evacuated are employed in safe areas, such as in the central region of Israel or near the Avara desert in the south of the country.

Addressing the concerns of Thai workers who fear they might not be able to return to Israel to work, she said that any worker who wants to return to Israel is always welcome.

She said if they want to come back, they have to contact their previous employers. If they could not reach their employers, they could reach the embassy.

“Our point is very clear. Anyone who wants to go back to Israel is always welcome, and we will make sure they do not have to go through a lot of procedures or anything. We want to see all of them come back,” she said.

When asked to comment on rumours about Thai workers being underpaid, she said that Israel never pays lower than the minimum wage, and their minimum wages are much higher than other countries in the region.

Meanwhile, in a post on Facebook on Monday, Foreign Affairs Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara said the government is concerned about the safety of the 25 Thais taken hostage by Hamas.

The government is doing all it can to ensure the immediate release of the Thai hostages, and it hopes the war in the Gaza Strip will end and peace will be restored, Mr Parnpree posted.

He also expressed condolences over the deaths of five more Thais in Israel, which raised the total number of fatalities to 39.

On Sunday, the Thai Ambassador to Israel, Pannabha Chandraramya, met with MK Eliyahu Revivo, chairman of Israel’s Foreign Workers Committee, to seek their cooperation in rescuing the Thai hostages.

No tolerance for graft, Suriya says

The Transport Ministry has ordered all relevant agencies to cooperate with the police to assist its crackdown on overloaded trucks, after concrete slabs on a major road in Bangkok caved in last week.

The agencies in question are the Department of Rural Roads (DRR), the Department of Highways (DH), the Department of Land Transport (DLT) and the Expressway Authority of Thailand (Exat).

The order came after Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit vowed to crack down on graft in departments under the ministry’s supervision.

He was referring to reports about stickers placed on the windscreen of overloaded trucks and lorries, which indicate bribes were paid to ensure they can ply roads while carrying more weight than legally permitted.

Last week, an overloaded truck caused a road in Bangkok’s Phra Khanong district to collapse. The truck was travelling on Sukhumvit Road near Soi Sukhumvit 64/1 when it broke a concrete slab placed over the opening of an underground cable trench dug by the Metropolitan Electricity Authority, causing the road to cave in and injuring two motorists.

When authorities weighed the truck and its cargo, they found the truck was carrying 37.45 tonnes of soil dug from a nearby construction site. The legal limit is 25 tonnes.

The discovery of the stickers led to suspicions that bribes had been paid to allow the truck to pass unimpeded, though the company which owns the truck claimed the stickers belonged to the company.

The DH, DRR and Exat must work more proactively with the police and carry out more frequent checks of freight trucks, the minister said, adding the weight limit must be strictly enforced to prevent corruption and road damage.

Overweight trucks are known to have caused the premature deterioration of road surfaces, creating safety hazards for motorists and forcing the government to fork out more cash to fund road repairs.

All agencies concerned must work more closely with the Central Investigation Bureau to crack down on overweight trucks, many of which try to avoid the authorities by using secondary or feeder roads with no weighing stations or roadside checkpoints.

The minister said new technology will be introduced to track the location of overweight trucks accurately.

In the previous fiscal year, 3,416 freight vehicles nationwide were stopped at weighing stations and roadside checkpoints for carrying more weight than was legally allowed, according to DH figures.

Since the start of October, 394 vehicles have been caught exceeding the weight limit nationwide.

The information, meanwhile, will be passed onto the DLT, which will, in turn, issue a notice for owners to bring such vehicles in for inspection. If the vehicles are found to have been modified to increase haulage capacity without permission, the owners will face swift legal action, Mr Suriya said.

Approval needed for loan to fund handout

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said he was confident the coalition parties, with 320 votes in the House, would support the passage of a bill seeking to borrow 500 billion baht to fund the government’s 10,000-baht digital money handout scheme.

On board a flight to San Francisco late on Sunday night, the prime minister said the country needs the digital handout to stimulate the economy, which had grown only 1.9% annually over the past decade. Without substantial economic growth, the country could not attract foreign investment, he said.

Mr Srettha also said that the governor of the Bank of Thailand had recommended the government borrow to fund the digital wallet scheme.

He also responded to criticism from Sirikanya Tansakun, a deputy leader of the opposition Move Forward Party, who said that the handout will not materialise and may be rejected by parliament. “I am confident the government has the solid support of 320 votes in parliament [to ensure the passage of the loan bill],” Mr Srettha said.

He also said the scheme’s launch would be delayed as the government has to listen to feedback and review some criteria for recipients.

The handout will begin next May, three months later than planned, he said.

When asked if anything could derail the handout, Mr Srettha insisted the government had complied with the law, adding that the Council of State, which is the government’s legal advisory body, is expected to provide positive recommendations.

Prommin Lertsuridej, the prime minister’s secretary-general, on Monday denied reports that the Council of State’s secretary-general had disagreed with the government’s bill to borrow 500 billion baht to finance the handout during a meeting of the digital wallet policy committee last Friday.

“The secretary-general of the Council of State did not say he disagreed. He said he needed to be sure everything is in line with the law, and he will bring the matter up for discussion at a council meeting,” Dr Prommin said.

Activist Srisuwan Janya asked the Ombudsman on Monday to seek a Constitutional Court ruling on the legality of the government’s plan to borrow 500 billion baht to fund the digital wallet handout.

Mr Srisuwan said the constitution and the State Fiscal and Financial Disciplines Act prohibited the government from passing a law for any borrowing for political gain or non-urgent issues.

The digital money handout was a key election policy of the ruling Pheu Thai Party, which heads the coalition government. Mr Srettha also announced it during the government’s policy statement to parliament.

Mr Srisuwan said not all Thais would receive the handout, but everyone would have to bear the cost through the repayment of the government’s planned borrowing.

Under the handout scheme, the digital currency will be offered to Thais aged 16 and older who earn less than 70,000 baht per month and have under 500,000 baht in bank deposits, he said.

Based on these criteria, an estimated 50 million people will be eligible — down from the 56 million who were intended originally.

People who earn more than 70,000 baht a month but have less than 500,000 baht in bank deposits will not be eligible. The same applies to those who earn less than 70,000 baht a month yet have over 500,000 baht in their accounts.

The money can only be used to buy food and consumer goods. It cannot be used to purchase online goods, cigarettes or liquor, cash vouchers and valuables like diamonds, gems or gold. It also cannot be used to pay off debts or cover water or electricity bills, fuel, natural gas or tuition fees.

The money must be spent in the district where the recipient’s home is registered. It cannot be transferred to other people or converted into cash.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) will rent electric garbage trucks to replace their diesel vehicles and build two more waste-to-energy (WTE) plants to improve the city’s waste management.

BMA deputy permanent secretary Chatree Wattanakajorn said on Monday that the BMA had signed a contract that allows a private company to build the plants at waste incineration sites in Nong Khaem district and the On Nut area in Phra Khanong district.

BMA expects construction to start early next year and finish before the end of 2026.

Mr Chatree said the project will be carried out under a build-operate-transport model, with the winning bidder given a 20-year concession to run the plants before it has to transfer the facilities back to BMA.

Moreover, the BMA has been given a budget from the 2023 fiscal year to build another incineration plant in Nong Khaem, which generates 21-24 megawatts of electricity, 19 megawatts of which will be sold.

The project has been approved by the Interior Ministry, and the public is welcome to submit a bid for the project, said Mr Chatree.

The project aims to reduce the amount of garbage which ends up in landfills from 4.1 tonnes daily, or roughly 45% of the total garbage collected, to 1.7 tonnes, or 15% daily.

Also, the BMA plans to increase the capacity of the WTE plants from managing 500 tonnes of garbage a day, or about 5% of the total garbage, to 28%.

Mr Chatree also revealed that the BMA is consulting the Environmental Research Institute of Chulalongkorn University to privatise the garbage collection and waste management at the On Nut and Nong Khaem incineration sites with conditions that the entire process must be run with diesel-free vehicles and must not pollute neighbouring areas.

The BMA also plans to replace diesel garbage trucks with 842 EV trucks this year. In 2025, the agency will deploy another 721 EV garbage trucks, totalling 1,563 EV garbage trucks in Bangkok.

The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) will sign a contract with a contractor to lay 13.3km of rail track for the Ban Pho-Phra Kaeo section in Ayutthaya province this month.

The new track will be part of the Sino-Thai rail project from Bangkok to Nong Khai.

SRT governor Nirut Maneephan on Monday gave updates on this section, which has a construction budget worth 10.3 billion baht.

Mr Nirut said the SRT is awaiting a draft contract from the Office of the Attorney-General (OAG) to start construction.

He said the SRT will sign the contract with its contractor, Boonchai Panich (1979) Co Ltd, within this month before issuing a notice to proceed.

Meanwhile, the Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) on the design for the elevated rail track at the Ayutthaya station, about 2 kilometres from the province’s historic sites, has been sent to nine internal agencies and Unesco headquarters in France for approval.

Mr Nirut also spoke on how the project’s Bang Sue-Don Mueang section is undergoing a negotiation between the SRT and the contractor over a route overlapping the Don Mueang–Suvarnabhumi–U-Tapao high-speed railway.

The resolution will be proposed to the Eastern Economic Corridor Office of Thailand (EECO), and decisions will be finalised by the end of this year, he said.

“It is likely that the SRT might undertake the construction contract itself to avoid a delay in the project,” said Mr Nirut.

When asked about the source of funding to finance the railway construction, Mr Nirut said that the SRT has to consider if it will apply the budget from the Thai-Chinese high-speed train project, the Don Mueang–Suvarnabhumi–U-Tapao high-speed railway, or a loan which the cabinet must approve.

The SRT plans to propose the budget acquisition to the cabinet this year. Mr Nirut added that the first phase of the Thai-Chinese high-speed line, the Bang Sue-Don Mueang section, will be ready for service in 2028 as planned.

The total budget for the Thai-Chinese high-speed train project is set at 179 billion baht, which includes two phases, Bangkok-Nakhon Ratchasima and Nakhon Ratchasima-Nong Khai, covering 606 km across eight provinces.

More than 400 police officers and state officials are now looking for escaped prisoner Chaowalit Thongduang, known as “Sia Pang Na Node”, who took flight into the Banthad mountain range, national police chief Pol Gen Torsak Sukvimol said on Monday.

Pol Gen Torsak said clothes recently found in the mountain range were proven to have been worn by Chaowalit following DNA tests on the garments.

Six days into the manhunt, he said that Pol Lt Gen Thana Chuwong, the acting deputy national police chief, had travelled to the area to follow up on the attempt to recapture him.

The policemen and state going after Chaowalit in the mountain range stretching across Phatthalung, Trang, and Satun provinces are from the Provincial Police Regions 8 and 9 covering the southern provinces, the Border Patrol Police Bureau, the Crime Suppression Division, the Scientific Crime Detection Division and the Department of Corrections.

A police source said they had altered their strategy by closing off possible tracks along streams to prevent Chaowalit from walking to villages and begging for food from villagers.

However, officers still cannot say for certain if Chaowalit is hiding in the Trang or Phatthalung section of the Banthad mountain range, the source said.

A local villager in Baan Pa Pon said that people from about 100 households in the village were carrying a knife or other weapon with them, even in bed, to defend themselves from Chaowalit, who is carrying firearms.

Chaowalit, 37, was serving time for attempted murder. He fled from Maharat Nakhon Si Thammarat Hospital on Oct 22 after having been taken there for dental treatment. Despite being restrained and wearing leg chains, he managed to escape.

More than 400 police officers and state officials are now looking for escaped prisoner Chaowalit Thongduang, known as “Sia Pang Na Node”, who took flight into the Banthad mountain range, national police chief Pol Gen Torsak Sukvimol said on Monday.

Pol Gen Torsak said clothes recently found in the mountain range were proven to have been worn by Chaowalit following DNA tests on the garments.

Six days into the manhunt, he said that Pol Lt Gen Thana Chuwong, the acting deputy national police chief, had travelled to the area to follow up on the attempt to recapture him.

The policemen and state going after Chaowalit in the mountain range stretching across Phatthalung, Trang, and Satun provinces are from the Provincial Police Regions 8 and 9 covering the southern provinces, the Border Patrol Police Bureau, the Crime Suppression Division, the Scientific Crime Detection Division and the Department of Corrections.

A police source said they had altered their strategy by closing off possible tracks along streams to prevent Chaowalit from walking to villages and begging for food from villagers.

However, officers still cannot say for certain if Chaowalit is hiding in the Trang or Phatthalung section of the Banthad mountain range, the source said.

A local villager in Baan Pa Pon said that people from about 100 households in the village were carrying a knife or other weapon with them, even in bed, to defend themselves from Chaowalit, who is carrying firearms.

Chaowalit, 37, was serving time for attempted murder. He fled from Maharat Nakhon Si Thammarat Hospital on Oct 22 after having been taken there for dental treatment. Despite being restrained and wearing leg chains, he managed to escape.