The plane took off at 7am bound for Pattani International Airport in Tambon Bor Thong in Nong Chick district.

Prayut was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister General Chatchai Sarikulya, Interior Minister Anupong Paochinda, Agriculture Minister Krissada Boonraj, Energy Minister Siri Jirapongphan, PM’s Office Minister Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana, Deputy Defence Minister Chaicharn Changmongkol, and Deputy Education Minister Surachet Chaiwong.

The prime minister is scheduled to chair the opening ceremony of the 13th assembly of boy scouts from southern border provinces at Pattani stadium. Prayut, who was dressed in a boy scout uniform, greeted reporters with a smile before he and his entourage boarded the plane.

At 11am, the prime minister will chair a meeting on economic and social development for southern border provinces at the Pattani provincial hall.

In the afternoon, he will visit Wat Sai Khao in Tambon Sai Khao in Khok Pho district.

A boat carrying the Rohingya refugees, who were trying to reach Malaysia, had stopped briefly at Koh Lanta in Krabi province on Sunday as fears grew about overcrowded camps in Bangladesh for the stateless minority fleeing violence in Myanmar.

“I suggest not to sensationalise the issue.

“We took care of them on a humanitarian basis and coordinated with the country of origin, transit and destination,” Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha told reporters yesterday.

The group was detained by the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency upon their arrival in Malaysia.

Maritime Northern Region director First Admiral Rozali Mohd Said said the boat was found at 9.10am yesterday about 0.1 nautical miles (0.2 kilometres) off Pulau Nyior Setali by Maritime and Navy vessels patrolling the waters.

“We found 19 male adults, 17 female adults, 12 girls and eight boys on the boat.

“Maritime has provided initial aid, such as food, drinks and medicine as required,” he said in a statement.

Handed over to immigration

Rozali added that the boat |has been escorted to the Kuala Kedah jetty and the people were handed over to the Kedah Immigration Department for further processing.

“We are serious about handling breaches in Malaysian waters, but on a humanitarian basis, the refugees were given good treatment,” he said.

This is the first group of Rohingya refugees to attempt a sea journey to Southeast Asia since the violence in Rakhine state last August that forced some 700,000 people to flee to Bangladesh.

However, it was unclear where the group had sailed from as the Bangladeshi authority said earlier that the group were not from the refugee camps.

Thai authorities, who launched a major crackdown on human trafficking in 2015, said human |traffickers do not appear to be involved.

A Rohingya source said the |group would not be the last and a |few hundreds of others are also preparing to attempt the dangerous journey to Thailand due to |difficulties in the refugee camps and the continued violence in Rakhine state.

He said he and his friend, who also lived in the same building, were playing the online game at about 2am when he heard some sound opposite his room. He opened the door and saw sparks in the electricity control room, so he quickly went downstairs to alert the security guards.

When he went back to his room on the fourth floor, he found thick smoke on the corridors. He alerted his friend via the game about the fire. They then left their rooms and alerted other tenants about the fire before informing police.

Meanwhile, Anhthi Vanngo, 28, a Vietnamese exchange student from Chulalongkorn University, who was reported missing after the fire was put out, has been traced to Ramathibhodi Hospital.

A university official alerted JS 100 traffic radio station about the missing student. The station phoned the hospitals where those affected by the fire were sent. A nurse at Ramathibodi Hospital told the station staff that a Vietnamese female affected by the fire had been admitted and her face matched the photo of the missing Vietnamese student.

Because she was on a respirator, the nurse wrote the name Anhthi Vanngo and showed it to her. The patient nodded so JS 100 radio contacted the university. Her room was on the 14th floor and one of her friends, who managed to escape, said she was last seen unconscious but she was unable to help her.

Acting on a tip-off, the officials found the drugs on a Toyota pick-up truck with Bangkok licence plates at the Thai Charoen Co compound in Tambon Muang Yai at 10.30pm. The drugs, said to be worth Bt1.7 million in street value, were found during a search of the vehicle. No arrests have yet been made.

In Bangkok, national police chief Pol General Chakthip Chaijinda told a press conference about separate drug busts carried out at various provinces between March 25 and April 1.

Chakthip said police had apprehended 11 suspects in 11 drug busts, which saw officers seize a total of 1,783,263 methamphetamine pills, 703 kilograms of “ice”, 1,380 kilograms of marijuana, 1,471 grams of cocaine, 90 ecstasy pills, and 0.6 gram of ketamine. These drugs were said to be worth Bt890 million on the streets. Officers seized assets worth Bt4.9 million from suspects, including a six-wheel truck, nine cars, four guns with ammunition, 11 mobile phones and Bt87,220 cash.

Chakthip said Thai authorities were continuously cracking down on drug trafficking and had received cooperation from neighbouring countries, including Myanmar and Laos. He said gangs usually moved drugs from the North and Northeast through the Central region during holidays.

Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB) commissioner Pol Lt-General Sommai Kongwisaisuk said many cases saw illicit drugs smuggled from a neighbouring country such as Laos. Various methods were used to avoid detection, including via cross-border trekking groups of armed men, or chicken or cow carcasses stuffed with drugs.

He said a single “yaba” (methamphetamine) pill worth Bt1 in a neighbouring country could fetch Bt200 in Thailand, and Bt500 in a third country. One kilogram of “ice” worth Bt1 million could fetch 1,000 times that price in a third country, he claimed.

Sommai cited the Monday-night case in which 703 kilograms of “ice” was seized as an indication of the non-stop production of narcotics. He said the drugs were mostly smuggled from a neighbouring country through Thailand’s North, Northeastern, Central and Southern regions to reach Malaysia, which was a hub for further distribution to other countries such as Australia and South Korea.

SEVERAL FIRE trucks that rushed to a burning apartment building in Bangkok early yesterday were prevented from reaching the fire because access was too narrow for the vehicles to negotiate. The blaze killed three people and injured more than 30 others before it could be put out.

Firemen jumped out of their vehicles at least 100 metres from the Rajtevee Apartment building in the capital’s Ratchathewi district, and ran towards the building carrying fire-fighting equipment.

The blaze in the 15-storey building started at about 2.30am yesterday, likely because of an electrical short-circuit. It then spread quickly through the electrical wiring shaft.

Without fire trucks, firemen carried hoses and connected them to the water sources closest to the building. Without hydraulic cherry pickers, they had to climb staircases to reach the people who were trapped inside. Many victims suffered seriously from smoke inhalation and could not escape on their own.

It took firemen about two hours to extinguish the blaze.

“We could have acted faster in saving people if fire trucks, including those with cherry pickers, could have directly reached the building,” an official from the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s (BMA) Fire and Rescue Department said yesterday on condition of anonymity. The apartment building is now off-limits as authorities plan a careful investigation that could take one or two months.

The Rajtevee Apartment building has 180 units and features fire-prevention systems in line with the Building Control Act of BE 2535 (1992), even though the law took effect after its construction.

“We inspected this building last year and everything was fine then,” Ratchathewi District Office director Thirayut Phumisak said.

Rajtevee Apartment Limited Partnership, which owns several buildings, announced via a representative that it would provide remedial action for the victims and affected residents. “We will take care of them,” the representative said.

Thirayut said most of the injured victims had lived on floors nine to 11.

“At this point, we will focus on helping the victims first. We have not yet identified who should be held responsible for this fatal fire,” he said.

Warut Poonpon, a resident, said the scene was chaotic and depressing, as people had to rush for their lives as smoke spread.

Engineering Institute of Thailand president Assoc Professor Thanes Weerasiri said officials found the lift shaft door was open on the 12th floor.

“Had the door been left open during the fire, smoke could have seriously flooded the 12th floor,” Thanes said. “Had the door been closed, smoke could have soared to the top of the building.”

At present, laws do not require apartment building operators to stage fire-evacuation drills for residents. The BMA Fire and Rescue Department source said that without such a requirement, residents might be clueless in times of emergency.

Thanes said the owners of several buildings in Bangkok should pay attention to legal and safety requirements. Even buildings constructed before the Building Control Act took effect had to abide by this law.

“For example, all buildings must install fire-extinguishing cylinders at on every floor. Also, they must have fire alarms in place,” Thanes said. “Building owners must provide fire-prevention-system inspections by qualified inspectors every year.”

The structures of many buildings constructed before the act was introduced are different from those developed later, but they can be adjusted to comply with the laws. In the Ratchathewi district alone, there are more than 300 such buildings.

Hydropower development on the Mekong River will aggravate food insecurity and poverty in the region and reverse the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a study says.

Environmental and social specialists of Mekong River Commission (MRC) warned during the third MRC International Conference in Siem Reap, Cambodia, that hydropower dam development in the Mekong River was expected to ravage the river basin with severe environmental and socioeconomic impacts.

Thailand was expected to suffer the most economically and ecologically, the report said.

The results of research on the scenarios of full scale hydropower dam development on the Mekong River show that fish biomass and biodiversity will be gravely harmed and diminished, causing a food shortage, malnutrition, and lower income among poor people driving them further into poverty. This outweighs  the economic benefits from hydropower and consequent investment.

Adverse impacts

Mekong River Commission Secretariat (MRCS) socioeconomic specialist Nguyen Thi Ngoc Minh said that the scenarios for 2020 and 2040 showed that if hydropower dam development in the Mekong River continues as planned, the economic benefits to the region would be overshadowed by the adverse impacts of the development.

“Development plans contribute to the economy of the region, as hydropower is expected to generate nearly half of the combined economic benefits from other sectors,  but it would cause greater impacts to other sectors as well,” Minh said.

She said that the impacts from dams to food security in the region would be colossal, as the fisheries in Mekong River,  which is the main source of food and income for the people in the region, would largely be diminished.

Even though the agricultural sector could get a yield boost in the early years from better irrigation and fewer threats from flood and drought, the lack of sediment influx to downstream agricultural areas would make the soil infertile and reduce the farming yield in the long run, she said.

The sediment loss would also result in other costly impacts to Lower Mekong Basin countries, as the research by Sopheap Lim revealed that by 2040 up to 97 per cent would be trapped in the reservoirs of upstream dams and only 3 per cent would reach the delta.

From this scenario, the severe erosion at the Mekong River Delta in Vietnam and along the riverbank from Vientiane to Stung Treng in Cambodia will occur, forcing the governments of Mekong countries to invest up to $6.8 billion on riverbank reenforcements.

“From these outcomes, the food insecurity and poverty will intensify in the region and the poor people in Laos and Cambodia will be the most affected population in this scenario.

These adverse impacts will not only affect the microeconomics, but it will also be felt in the macro scale as well,” Minh said.

According to her study, the average of GDP growth potential for Lower Mekong Basin countries can be reduced up to $29 billion, while Thailand would have the greatest economic loss up to $11 billion. Laos and Cambodia would face around $9 billion loss in GDP growth.

She added that by including the impacts of climate change to the scenario, the overall impact to the socioeconomy and environment would be more severe and the benefits from hydropower would also be lowered.

On the impact to the fish population, ecosystem, and biodiversity, So Nam, MRCS Chief Environment Management Officer, said that more than 900,000 tonnes of fish biomass in Mekong River would disappear as a result of impacts from the dams by 2040, which is the equivalent of $4.3 billion.

According to So Nam’s research, Thailand would have the highest rate of fish loss as by 2040 as  55 per cent of Thai fish stock will be gone, followed by Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam at the percentage of 50, 35, and 30 respectively.

He further said that due to the change of the river ecosystem from the creation of reservoirs, many parts of Mekong River will transform into lake ecosystem, which is unsuitable for many native aquatic species of the river and will eventually drive them to the edge of extinction.

Biodiversity

Other species currently alien to the river will flourish and dominate the new ecosystem.

He also warned that the hydropower development will further diminish the resilience of the river’s aquatic ecosystems to climate change.

However, one of Laotian executive governmental officers on Mekong issues, who asked not be named, dismissed the research findings and said that it was just an estimation. He assured that hydropower dams were crucial to solve poverty and they would provide large amounts of economic benefits to not only Laos, but the whole region.

He admitted that the fish and biodiversity of the river were endangered, but he stressed that the impact from dams was only one of the factors. Wastewater from the agricultural sector and cities, overfishing, and climate change all contributed to decrease in fish numbers in the river.

The problem can be solved by aquaculture development, which the Lao government has been working on with the help of Thai academics such as the Faculty of Fisheries Technology and Aquatic Resources of Maejo University.

CCD deputy commander Pol Colonel Chak Pengsathorn said on Tuesday that officers in Chiang Mai, Chon Buri, Samut Sakhon, Phitsanulok, Rayong, Si Sa Ket, Phetchabun, Sing Buri, Samut Prakan and Nonthaburi provinces had collected initial findings in the investigation. Their respective district chiefs would file formal complaints to the CCD to seek punishment for the officials and private companies involved.

The CCD, along with a network against public-sector corruption, has investigated alleged collusion between local administrators over contract bids for the vehicles. This resulted in a first batch of 21 local bodies being scrutinised by the Office of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), which handles corruption cases involving politicians (including those working at the local administrative bodies) and high-ranking officials.

Chak said the local bodies allegedly exaggerated the median price of sewage and garbage trucks, which have special features that are not available in the normal market. As a result, trucks that should have cost about Bt11 million each (including the vehicle, tax and a moderate profit) were bought at Bt17 million to Bt18 million each. The process seemed to favour two companies that shared several executives.

The bidding process also involved five sub-standard firms, which were highly unlikely to win any tender, to compete with the two other companies to meet the legal requirement that bidding for state contracts must involve multiple competitors, Chak said.

Funded by taxpayers’ money, local administrative organisations usually have leftover money from their annual budgets, which they accumulate and keep for use during an emergency or disaster. Some 7,000 local bodies nationwide are said to have a total of Bt10 billion in leftover budget.

THE PUBLIC Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) yesterday proposed that the Social Development and Human Security Ministry punish 96 state officials allegedly involved in irregularities at dozens of provincial protection centres for the destitute.

Under the proposal, the officials would be subject to disciplinary punishments ranging from transfer to dismissal with pension or dismissal without pension.

The PACC investigation against the 96 accused found links to three high-ranking officials who had worked at the ministry in 2017, one current official at the ministry and another retired official.

The commission will submit the names of these five high-ranking officials to the ministry for its investigation, and to the Office of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) for a separate inquiry, PACC secretary-general Korntip Daroj said.

Korntip also reported that the PACC investigation had covered 56 out of the total of 76 provincial protection centres nationwide.

So far, he said, 34 of the first batch of 37 centres were confirmed to have been subjected to graft, while the other three – in Sing Buri, Prachin Buri and Nakhon Si Thammarat – were being rechecked. Although no misappropriated allowances had been found at the three centres, they may have been affected by other forms of corruption, he added.

The 34 centres where graft allegedly occurred were: Khon Kaen, Chiang Mai, Bung Karn, Nong Khai, Surat Thani, Sara Buri, Ayutthaya, Trat, Udon Thani, Nan, Krabi, Trang, Sa Kaew, Roi Et, Phatthalung, Chumphon, Chaiyaphum, Surin, Phitsanulok, Maha Sarakham, Lamphun, Nakhon Ratchasima, Amnat Charoen, Ang Thong, Yasothon, Si Sa Ket, Ubon Ratchathani, Nakhon Phanom, Kalasin, Yala, Samut Songkhram, Phichit, Ratchaburi and Loei.

The PACC board has resolved to file charges against 15 of the provincial centres, while it was considering what to do in the case of another seven centres, and fact-finding reports were being compiled on the remaining 12 centres.

Korntip added that the PACC was further investigating 22 centres and conducting fact-finding in another 17 centres.

Korntip also reported that the agency was conducting additional fact-finding on five self-help settlement centres, being Khon Kaen’s Ubolrat Dam centre, Udon Thani’s Chiang Pin centre, Buri Ram’s Ban Kruad centre, Udon Thani’s Huai Luang centre and Satun’s Southern Development centre. The cases against three of these centres would be forwarded to the NACC, he said.

The PACC focuses on corruption cases involving low-ranking officials, while the NACC handles corruption cases involving politicians and high-ranking officials.

Failure to pay the minimum wage will earn a formal warning to pay it retroactively to April 1, department chief Anantachai Utaipatanacheep said on Tuesday.

Further failure to comply will lead to charges under the Labour Protection Act 1998. Conviction could mean six months in jail, a Bt100,000 fine or both.

The Cabinet on January 30 approved increases between Bt5 and Bt22, increasing the minimum wage to Bt308-Bt330, varying among the provinces.

The department’s branch offices have received no complaints so far about employers failing to pay the revised wage and nor has its website (www.labour.go.th), Anantachai said.

He believes that’s because employers are paying the right wage and workers know their rights, or because payday hasn’t come around yet at establishments where workers are paid monthly or twice-monthly.

JS 100 traffic radio station was alerted by a Chulalongkorn University official that Anhthi Vanngo was missing after the fire at Rachathevi Apartment was put out. The student was attending in a post graduate course at the university’s Faculty of Science.

The station then phoned around the hospitals where those affected by the fire were sent.

A nurse at Ramathibodi Hospital told the station staff that a Vietnamese female affected by the fire had been admitted and her face matched the photo of the missing Vietnamese student.

Because she was on a respirator, the nurse wrote the name Anhthi Vanngo and showed it to her. The patient nodded so the JS 100 radio contacted the director of the Petroleum Geoscience International Course, Chulalongkorn University.

Her room was on the 14th floor of the apartment block and one of her friends who managed to escape the fire told the official that she was last seen unconscious but her friend could not help her.

At least, three people died in the blaze.