All expensive units at the government’s first senior housing complex are now booked up, less than a week after it opened for reservations.
Units priced at Bt2.1 million, Bt2.8 million, and Bt2.99 million at the Senior Complex in Samut Prakan, were all snapped up by Friday, after reservations opened on Monday.
Built by the Treasury Department, the Bt3-billion complex is the first government housing project for the elderly developed under the government’s policy for the ageing society.
Units priced at Bt1.82 million and Bt1.99 million units are still available for reservation until the end of this month.
Senior Complex is located on 72 rai of state land in Bang Phli district.
It features seven eight-storey buildings with a total of 921 rooms, ranging in size between 31.7 and 49.66 square metres. The common area houses a branch of Ramathibodi Hospital as well as an activity zone that includes a swimming pool, clubhouse and fitness room.
The price of rubber latex bounced back to Bt48 per kilo on Thursday after plummeting from Bt70-71 to Bt41-Bt42 earlier this week.
“Global output has decreased due to floods in major producer-countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia, while Thailand’s output has fallen due to heavy rain in the South,” explained Nakorn Tangavirapat, deputy governor of the Rubber Authority of Thailand (RAOT).
“Demand for rubber will continue to climb into early next year thanks to expanding rubber glove and tyre industries. China, the biggest market for Thai rubber gloves, will seek to replenish stocks, which will drive the rubber price up as high as Bt80 per kilo.”
Nakorn added that rubber farmers should not be hit by the price fluctuation, as the second phase of the government’s price guarantee scheme had been approved by Cabinet.
“The RAOT estimates that the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives could start disbursing [price-guarantee] money as soon as November 26,” he added.
About 1.8 million rubber farmers have registered for the scheme. Sheet rubber is guaranteed at Bt60 per kilo, while latex with 100 per cent dry rubber content (DRC) is guaranteed at Bt57 per kilo, and 50 per cent DRC cup lump rubber at Bt23 per kilo. The scheme will cost Bt10.04 billion.
The RAOT estimates that Thailand will produce 4.9 million tonnes of rubber this year, 4.18 million tonnes of which will be exported to fetch about US$11.2 billion.
There has been no progress in setting up a reconciliation committee, as it is waiting for more members with a practical approach, Parliament President Chuan Leekpai said on Friday.
He said there had been no official approach to any person to join the committee, emphasising the need for practical people to solve problems. He added that previous committees could not achieve their goal with only a theoretical approach.
He said that the meeting about the setting up of the committee saw the need for seven sectors to be represented, while King Prajadhipok’s Institute believed that it was hard to accomplish that soon, so the panel should start to work with the existing four sectors.
Some guidelines to prevent conflict were also seen as impossible but some still had a silver lining, such as the southern insurgency, he said.
Chuan, who is speaker of the House of Representatives, clarified that the committee was not being established to lessen the opposition’s duties, and it was only meant to create harmony.
A female thief arrested in Pathum Thani province has blamed a demon for telling her to steal about Bt50,000 worth of other people’s belongings.
On Friday, Pratunam Chulalongkorn police station sent officers to arrest Sukanya Kobchai, 39, at Chan Nakhon market.
Police found 0.5 grams of methamphetamine and one amphetamine pill in her possession, and promptly added a drugs charge.
Sukanya was caught on security camera stealing valuables from a house in the district on November 10, say police. Footage shows her spraying the house owner’s perfume on herself as she calmly commits the robbery.
She confessed her crime to investigating officers, explaining that as she was passing the house, she heard a voice telling her to do something bad.
The Bangkok MRT’s Blue Line extension will be temporarily closed on Saturday from 5pm for an official opening ceremony that will be presided over by Their Majesties the King and Queen.
The Sam Yod and Sanam Chai stations will be closed from 6am until the end of the ceremony, while Itsaraphap, Tha Phra, Bang Phai, Bang Wa, Phetkasem 48, Phasi Charoen, Bang Khae and Laksong stations will be closed from 4pm until the ceremony wraps up.
The Bangkok Expressway and Metro is advising people to keep this temporary closure in mind when they make travel plans
The government is planning to tighten vehicle inspection to deal with air pollution, the top official at the Pollution Control Department said.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will intensify measures to deal with polluters, Attapol Charoenchansa, the department’s director-general said.
He said 17 units would be set up in Bangkok for more stringent inspection of vehicles to find those emitting black smoke.
Between October 2019 and September 2020, 7,010 out of 9,539 inspected vehicles emitted excess black smoke and 2,526 were fined.
The aim is to lessen the level of PM2.5 dust particles (particles less than 2.5 micrometres in diameter) in the big city as diesel engine combustion releases too much pollution, he said.
According to the Land Transport Act, owners of cars that emit smoke would be suspended from driving the vehicles until the cars were fixed, Attapol said.
Bangkok police are questioning a man who allegedly robbed Bt416,000 from a TMB Bank on Thursday.
Police from Kannayao station arrested the suspect, who had allegedly robbed cash from TMB Bank’s Thanommit branch on Ramindra Road in Bangkok’s Bang Khen district, official said.
The bank alerted police at 4pm when the male suspect, wearing a camouflage-pattern shirt, black pants and a black ski mask entered the bank and forced a teller at gunpoint to hand over Bt2 million in cash. The teller reportedly handed over to him an envelope of cash with Bt416,000 in it, after which the suspect left the bank. He reportedly turned right and walked to Watcharaphol Road.
“CCTV footage showed the suspect walk to Soi Prayoonthong on Watcharaphol Road, which is around 300 metres from the bank. He changed his clothes into a black jacket and black shorts and left the old clothes as well as the money envelope in the dumpster,” said the police. “The suspect was identified as Karn [last name withheld], aged 25 years, and we found part of the stolen money at his flat in a nearby area.”
Police said the robbery occurred near the bank’s closing time and there were only three customers at the branch. No injuries were reported after the robbery.
Police are interrogating the suspect and collecting fingerprints from the crime scene.
Some 200 Karen people in Tak’s Phop Phra district arrived at a local police station late on Thursday to report that a vacuum truck had dumped human faeces in the upstream watershed their community uses for consumption.
They demanded that the business behind the pollution be immediately prosecuted because its selfish action has left the community with no water.
This watershed has been a source of water for the village for many generations and they are concerned that this pollution will affect the health of people in the community.
Meanwhile, police tried to resolve things by mediating between the business operator and the angry locals, who say similar incidents had taken place before, but this time they managed to identify the company behind the wrongdoing.
The company has agreed to pay Bt10,000 in compensation and promised it will not dump waste in the area again. Meanwhile, a relevant organisation has been informed of this case, and will take legal action in future.
A man who allegedly tried to force a six-year-old girl to perform oral sex was arrested in Bangkok on Friday.
His arrest was facilitated by clues a resident of the area found in security camera footage.
The incident took place in a community in Bangkok’s Rat Burana district at 4pm on November 8 when a stranger in a pink shirt was watching the girl while masturbating.
When she came close to him, the sexual predator grabbed her and forced the girl to perform oral sex but she got scared and ran away.
On Thursday, a neighbour checked footage in the house’s security camera system and saw the direction in which the man was headed. The video was later posted on the Internet.
Police are interrogating the alleged offender to consider charges and will hold a press conference on the matter.
The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) reported nine new cases in state quarantine facility over a 24-hour period on Friday.
All of the cases are asymptomatic and include a 56-year-old Thai masseuse who returned from Lebanon on November 1. She went into state quarantine in Chonburi, where she tested positive on November 8.
Two Swiss men aged 74 and 76, and a 52-year-old Thai woman, who had arrived from Switzerland on November 6 and checked into a Bangkok alternative state quarantine hotel, were found infected on November 11.
Five other foreigners to had come from their own countries tested positive in alternative state quarantine hotels in Bangkok. They included a 37-year-old Filipino engineer, who arrived on November 6 after taking a connecting flight from Hong Kong and was found positive on November 11. A 45-year-old Indian woman arrived on November 7 and tested positive on November 11, a 42-year-old Kuwaiti, who arrived on November 10 and tested positive the same day, a 43-year-old French national who arrived on October 30 and tested positive on November 11 and a 66-year-old Briton who arrived on November 6 and tested positive on November 11.
According their health data, this is the second time that the French man and the Briton have been infected by the virus. They had previously tested positive in July and on October 16 respectively.
Meanwhile, four other patients have recovered and been discharged.
The total number of confirmed cases in Thailand has risen to 3,861 (903 in state quarantine), 104 of whom are in hospital and 3,697 have recovered. The death toll remains unchanged at 60.
According to Worldometer, as of 10am, the total number of confirmed cases worldwide had risen to 53.08 million (up by 642,653). Of them, 37.2 million have recovered, while 14.58 million are active cases (95,680 in severe condition) and 1.3 million have died (up by 9,666).
Thailand ranks 149th in the list of most affected countries, while US tops the list with 10.87 million patients, followed by India with 8.72 million, Brazil 5.78 million, France 1.9 million and Russia 1.85 million.
