The MWA explained that the job to trim the trees near Dhurakij Pundit University was done in accordance with the Water Supply Canal Act 1983, in order to maintain the waterways that funnel raw water to tap-water facilities.

The agency said it had asked local bodies to trim the trees for fear tall trees could fall and block the waterway and affect the Bang Khean tap-water facility.

The MWA apologised for what happened and said it would ask the local bodies to stop trimming trees and appropriate response measures would be discussed.

The Thailand Urban Tree Network said the trees were trimmed too much.

It said a network member discovered that had been done on April 6 and photographic evidence was taken.

The group urged people to remain vigilant in relation to the issue, with lush trees welcomed when trying to minimise the heat.

Waranon Pitiwan, the department’s director-general, said 243 businesses have offered to temporarily take on 1,760 students age 15 and up, in jobs such as customer service, cashiers and sales assistants.

They include Ek-Chai Distribution Systems (which runs the Lotus shopping centres), Yum Restaurants International Thailand (KFC restaurants), Nopparod (Santa Fe restaurants), MT Thongpunchang Group (Swensen cafes), Hot Pot Restaurant, MK Restaurant, CP All (7-Eleven stores) and Central Food Retail.

Several state agencies are also hiring young people for the school break.

Waranon said the public-sector employers would pay Bt300 a day for at least seven hours of work per day, excluding breaks, and Bt150 for half-days. The private sector pays Bt40 per hour up to four hours a day during the school term and up to seven hours during the break.

The Employment Department will pay 60 students Bt300 each per day from April 10-May 11, he said.

“Working during the school break or in their free time during school gives students valuable training, instils a sense of self-pride, teaches responsibility and patience and makes constructive use of their free time,” Waranon said.

“It helps ease their parents’ financial burden, while the actual experience the young people gain helps them assess their aptitudes and prepare to enter the labour market after graduation.”

Students interested in joining the programme should contact the employment office in their home province or, in Bangkok, the Smart Job Centre at the Labour Ministry in Din Daeng district. They can also call a hotline at 1694.

Joi (not his real name), 41, committed the act that left his 13-year-old daughter in a serious condition after arguing with her over the amount of time she spent on Facebook and Line and then locked her in a rented house in Phetchaburi’s Muang district on Sunday.

He was arrested at a checkpoint in Prachuap Khiri Khan’s Thap Sakae district on Sunday night while trying to flee with his youngest daughter.

Joi told police he attacked the girl out of rage after they argued about her spending too much time on Facebook and Line.

His wife, 44, corroborated that version of events.

She said her husband did not like the girl spending a lot of time on social media for fear it would impact negatively on her school work.

She denied the suggestion the attack was the result of sexual abuse.

The wife said her husband had a violent temper and had hit the girl before over her social media use.

She claimed Joi had previously threatened to kill all the family members as he was jealous and paranoid that she would return to her former lover.

She said her daughter was recovering in hospital under close medical supervision.

Police said the husband was wanted under a court-issued arrest warrant in relation to a murder case in Trang’s Muang district on August 14, 2007.

Sirawit reported to his conscription station at Wat Nong Chok School at 7am.

He is on the list of university students who have asked for a conscription postponement. But he told military officials at the conscription station today that he wanted to forfeit the right to the postponement and enter the lottery.

Drawing a black card means he avoids two years of military service. A red card means he has to serve.

Sirawit attempted to speak to reporters but was told by military official that he could not do so in the conscription tent.

After a brief dispute, Sirawit left the tent to speak to reporters. He was told to stay near the tent as the lottery starts at 12pm.

Sirawit made headlines when he led a group of students activists to board a train to Hua Hin, threatening to launch an inspection into alleged corruption in the construction of the Kings Park project. But his group was stopped by the authorities at Ban Pong Railway Station.

CDC chairman Meechai Ruchupan said the constitution allows the government to organise municipal elections before the general election but only after the Election Commission Bill has been passed into law, the Thai National News Bureau reported yesterday.

He suggested that the government amend existing laws concerning local elections to ensure they are in accordance with the new charter promulgated last week.

He said doing so would not affect the time frame for the road map on reform.

Meanwhile, CDC spokesman Udom Ratamarit said it would submit two organic laws concerning the Election Commission (EC) and political parties to the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) for deliberation after the Songkran festival.

The two draft bills must be enacted first in order to allow political parties and the electoral body to adjust to new regulations that may follow, Meechai said.

Udom said the other two main organic laws relating to election of MPs and Senate acquirement will take time for the CDC to complete before forwarding it to the legislators.

The CDD has 240 days after the promulgation of the new Constitution to complete the drafting of 10 organic laws. After the main four organic laws are enacted, the EC must hold the next election within 150 days.

Udom admitted that if the NLA’s deliberation on the laws was delayed it would affect the time frame of the election too.

The court earlier dismissed the case against Jirachai but Yingluck’s legal team subsequently filed a petition with the Court of Appeals which then issued a new order for the lower court to hear from witnesses and view evidence linked to the charges against the Prayut government’s senior official.

Jirachai, previously deputy permanent secretary of the PM’s Office, was in charge of pursuing the civil liability lawsuit against Yingluck in which the ex-premier is liable for a compensation of Bt280 billion due to the financial damage caused by her government’s rice-pledging scheme.

Noppadol Laothong, a lawyer for Yingluck, alleged Jirachai had violated Article 157 of the Criminal Code by his negligence of official duty in handling the rice-pledging case against the former premier since he did not thoroughly consider all witnesses and evidences.

The lawyer said the judges of the lower court did not hear from witnesses so the Appeals Court issued the order for the lower court to do so on April 21 to ensure justice for the former premier.

He said Yingluck was one of the three persons who would testify before the court on that date against Jirachai.

Jirachai is expected to send his representative to attend the hearing before the court makes its decision on whether to accept the case.

Noppadol said Jirachai had acted improperly in violation of the rules and regulations established by the government committee in charge of civil liability lawsuits. This resulted in the unfair treatment of Yingluck.

According to the government committee’s rules and regulations, Noppadol said Jirachai was supposed to have hearings with various witnesses to get facts regarding the rice-pledging scheme before drawing a conclusion but he had failed to do so.

In addition, he alleged Jirachai neither checked the scheme’s rice inventory nor deducted the value of milled rice to get the net position of the overall scheme so the figures on financial damage were not accurate.

Noppadol said the scheme represented one of the key policies of the Yingluck government aimed at shoring up domestic rice prices to help farmers so Yingluck could not be held directly responsible for any civil liability as alleged by the Jirachai committee.

STRICTER TRAFFIC enforcement will be implemented over the Songkran break in an effort to cut the number of road deaths and injuries, authorities said yesterday.

With the ultimate goal of reducing the death toll to zero, police and military agencies, plus public and private sector groups have joined forces to campaign for safer roads for the “7 dangerous days” from this Tuesday until midnight on April 17 – to set up more traffic checkpoints and tighter traffic law enforcement, especially against drunk and speeding drivers.

After a deadly New Year festival, which saw a national death toll of 478 and some 3,919 accidents, the government aims to slash the number of deaths and accidents for the upcoming Songkran holiday.

Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department deputy director-general Kobchai Boonyaorana said the reason for ramping up traffic law enforcement was because statistics showed that the main cause of road accidents in Thailand was lack of traffic discipline.

“We have learned from previous traffic accident monitoring periods that we have a problem in our traffic law and law enforcement. So, this Songkran Festival, we had to come up with many tighter measures, such as requiring all passengers in the car to wear their seatbelts all the time and forbidding passengers to sit in the back of the [pickup] truck,” Kobchai said.

He cited an example of the horrendous accident on January 2 when a passenger van collided with a pickup truck loaded with passengers, killing 25 people in two vehicles and injuring two others. “Therefore, we aim to cut the death toll and accident count for this year as much as possible,” he said.

The Road Safety Directing Centre also reported that drunk drivers, speeding, and improper driving manners were the top three reasons behind most accidents during the last New Year and Songkran Festival.

Pol Col Weerawit Wachanapukka, deputy head of the Traffic Police Division, said that to efficiently enhance traffic law enforcement, police would set up regular traffic checkpoints across the country during Songkran.

“Police will set up more than 120 checkpoints in Bangkok and even more in other provinces to boost traffic discipline among road users, to check for drunk drivers, and facilitate transport vehicles during the rush period, when a large amount of people will return home and come back to Bangkok,” Weerawit said.

“The police will also work with the local authorities and let them set up local traffic checkpoints on local roads to increase road safety in local areas.”

Interior Minister General Anupong Paochinda said the government was concerned about the safety of people who will travel during Songkran, so there would be stricter road-safety measures to enhance law enforcement and let officers from relevant agencies work together to ensure convenience and security for drivers transporting people this festive season.

“We are encouraging people to follow the traffic rules and drive safely from this Songkran Festival onward. I am sure that these measures will make the roads safer,” Anupong said.

He said he had ordered local officials to set their own goals and measures to prevent road accidents in their areas. There would also be inspections in all areas to make sure there is an adaptation of the Pracha Rath – public/private partnership – scheme.

Kobchai said private vehicles used to transport people would be closely monitored, and drivers of public buses and passenger vans would also be strictly examined before and during their duty.

“There will be an inspection of every driver of a public transport vehicle before they start their journey to check that they are in good condition – well-rested and not drunk – before driving,” he said.

While there had been many complaints about stricter enforcement of traffic rules, Weerawit said the measures were meant to ensure the safety of road users, so that drivers and other people on the roads can get to their destinations safely.

“We understand that it was quite sudden when we announced stricter law enforcement during this period. But if we consider the truth – that we have the second highest death toll from road accidents in the world – I think this can be our fresh start to solve our chronic road accident problems,” he said.

Box:

Common causes

In 2016, 3,373 road accidents happened during the seven dangerous days associated with the Songkran Festival.

What are the common causes of accidents? 

-Drunk driving    34%

–Speeding    33%

–Sudden overtaking    18.5%

–Poor visibility    13.7%

–Falling asleep behind wheel    3%

–Ignoring traffic lights    0.5%

–Ignoring traffic signs    0.5%

–Driving against designated traffic direction     1%

–Overtaking via left lane    1%

–Using cellphone while driving     0.3 %

Source: Road Safety Directing Centre

Metropolitan Police commissioner Lt-General Sanit Mahathavorn said yesterday that buyers of the fake degrees would face the same penalty as the sellers – a jail term, a fine, or both.

“The jail term ranges from six months to five years, while the fine ranges from Bt1,000 to Bt50,000,” he said.

Kittiwat Chanwimonwat, 23, and Jutawadee Sirisuksawat, 21, were arrested in Surin province with fake degrees and related equipment.

Weerapon Kamsaeng, 25, and Lalida Kaewboonruang, 22, were nabbed in Ubon Ratchathani province with forgery tools.

“We found that they have opened Facebook pages to attract customers in violation of laws,” Sanit said.

Lalida said she had sold educational certificates for Bt3,500 for Mathayom 3-level up to bachelor degrees at top universities for Bt9,800 apiece.

The fake degrees were usually used for job applications within the |private sector where authenticity of documents are rarely checked.

Kittiwat told police that he had been in this illegal business for more than two years, attracting between 10 and 20 customers each month.

“Most customers want certificates for completion of Mathayom 3 or Mathayom 6,” he said.

He said he had warned customers the degrees were forged and they risked being caught lying.

All four suspects have been charged with forging official documents.

They were sent to Bangkok’s Don Muang Police Station for further action.