But before the celebrations begin, authorities came forward yesterday to advise the public about permitted and prohibited activities.

“We will be lenient with the ban on passengers in pickup beds but drivers must be very careful, especially when applying the brakes,” Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha said.

He added that motorcyclists and pillion riders must wear safety helmets.

“Those travelling in cars must have safety belts too,” he added.

Prayut also urged people to not criticise officials who would be strictly enforcing traffic laws for road safety.

The festive season is often plagued with road casualties and every year authorities have declared two periods known as the “seven dangerous days” – during the international New Year’s period and Songkran holidays – to remind people that they should be careful and help promote road safety.

For the coming period, the perilous period has been designated by authorities as running from tomorrow to January 3.

Prayut encouraged passengers to help take care of drivers because they were in charge of their safety.

Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department director-general Chayaphon Thitisak said that sitting in the beds of pickups would be allowed during the holidays because the government understood people had |travelled in such a fashion for a long time.

Chayaphon added, however, that people riding in pickups should not sit on the edges of the truck bed or drink alcohol.

He said his department’s main mission for New Year was encouraging people to respect traffic laws.

‘Social measures’

“We will use every social measure to prevent accidents on the roads during the holidays,” he said. “We encourage communities and families to look after one another and make sure everyone is complying with road safety regulations.”Provincial Police Region 1 commissioner Pol Lt-General Suwat Chaengyodsuk said speeding, drunk driving, the use of mobile phones while driving and driving while drowsy were of particular concern.

Deputy Metropolitan Police Commissioner Pol Maj-General Panurat Lakboon said if people found suspicious items or felt unsafe, they should alert police via the hotline 191 or the police “I lert u” app.

He also warned New Year revellers against lighting fireworks or firecrackers.

“If your fireworks or firecrackers hurt other people’s rights, you will face up to three years in jail and/or a fine of Bt60,000,” Panurat said.

The school has just one room and 10 sets of desks and chairs. Teaching materials are also very meagre, with only a few posters on display.

The Office of the Non-formal and Informal Education (ONIE) has designated San Pu Leoi School as an educational institute to fill a gap in Thailand’s educational sector.

Without the school, young children in the area would not have access to education.

However, due to financial constraints, the school has to make do with limited teaching materials.

Education Council secretary-general Chaipreuk Sereerak, who visited the school earlier this month, said he would raise the budget issue with Education Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin to seek a “fair budget” for the ONIE.

“The ONIE should get a budget for young children’s education as educational agencies assigned to provide such education normally receive a state budget,” he said.

ONIE secretary-general Kritchai Arunrat said while his agency had received a budget for the provision of primary, secondary and vocational education in the informal and non-formal sector, it had not received a budget to provide education for young children.

“But given that we cannot ignore hill-tribe children in remote areas, we have now been using a budget for illiterate people in funding schools for these children,” Kritchai said.

He said the budget was just Bt500 per head per year.

This amount is far too little when compared with Bt1,700 that the Office of Basic Education Commission (OBEC) receives for the education of preschool children.

“It should be noted that the OBEC may be unable to cover all young children, as some live in remote areas,” Kritchai said. “That’s why a state budget should be allocated to agencies that have been filling the gap.”

According to the law, the ONIE does not have direct duties to provide primary education. Its main job responsibilities are to offer formal and non-formal education to people aged between 15 and 75.

Kritchai, however, argued that in practice the agency had also taken care of young children and it deserved to receive a budget for such work.

At San Pu Leoi School, children aged between three and five years old attend a flag-raising ceremony together at 8am and then do exercise for half an hour. At 9am, they are given milk and begin academic exercises. They are also allowed to learn on their own by playing or painting pictures. At 11.30am, they have lunch, as a local administrative body provides Bt20 per child lunch and hires a cook.

In the afternoon, students continue with their informal education and they leave at 3pm.

“I also agree we must take care of children younger than three years old. If their parents cannot watch over them, these children can come to my school,” said Amporn Sukjai, a teacher at the school.

After classes, she also helps elderly people learn how to read and write.

The learning environment at San Pu Loei School is far different that that at Ban Chang Khoeng Samakee Wittayakhan School, which is also located in Chiang Mai’s Mae Chaem district and has an ample budget to buy teaching materials.

This school uses the Montessori education curriculum to teach pupils, while reporting quality results.

There are programmes for young children to exercise as well as life-skills curricula such as raising chickens and collecting eggs, cultivating plants and scrubbing floors. The pupils appeared to be patient and have good discipline.

Academic pursuits include teaching them simple maths, while Thai-language class focuses first on listening and speaking before tackling writing.

“We also teach young children how to analyse their ideas, words and sentences,” a teacher said.

THE MOBILE Cabinet meeting in Sukhothai has approved flood and drought-prevention projects in the Yom River Basin, including enlarging floodwater-retention fields and building new water gates and irrigation canals, but it will not resume the controversial Kaeng Suea Ten Dam project.

Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Grisada Boonrach said after yesterday’s meeting that Cabinet agreed to grant an urgent budget totalling Bt1.9 billion for irrigation improvements and flood and drought-prevention projects in the Yom River Basin.

Grisada said the money would mainly be spent on a plan to expand floodwater-retention fields in the Bang Rakam model project in nearby Phitsanulok province to increase its storage capacity to 550 million cubic metres. Currently the Bang Rakam fields can hold only 400 million cubic metres of water.

Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha acknowledged that the shelved Kaeng Suea Ten Dam issue was sensitive.

He said the government was trying to create reservoirs and expand the floodwater-retention fields in low-lying areas, as authorities had done in the Bang Rakam project, which had proven effective in relieving flood problems in Sukhothai City.

Prayut said the Cabinet had also approved water-management proposals from local leaders and four new water gates would be constructed to prevent flooding downstream.

Expansion of the floodwater-retention fields was proposed by the Royal Irrigation Department (RID). Acting director-general Thongplew Kongchan said the RID planned to have an additional 117,000 rai (18,720 hectares) of floodwater-retention fields for the next flood season. This will increase its capacity to store another 150 million cubic metres of water.

“The success of the floodwater-retention fields under the Bang Rakam model project this year proved that it could significantly reduce flooding problems in the lower Chao Phraya River Basin, and also reduce the severe flooding in Sukhothai. This will reduce the government’s burden of compensating people for damage caused by flooding,” Thongplew said.

During the first year of the scheme, the RID provided irrigation to farmers in the flood retention area from April 1 to allow them to grow their rice crop earlier than usual and let them harvest it by early August. This enabled the authorities to use the vacant fields to store floodwater.

However, the scheme was controversial as people in designated areas said they were unfairly affected.

Thongplew said that of the 265,000 rai of land used in the Bang Rakam model project, 258,400 rai was farmland. The paddy fields were harvested by July and the land was then used for storing up to 400 million cubic metres of water.

After the flood season, around 100 million cubic metres of water were left in the fields for agricultural use during the dry season that started in December, he said.

The RID said that if the Cabinet approves the expansion of the Bang Rakam model floodwater retention fields, a total of 382,000 rai of land would be used for the project with the capacity to hold 550 million cubic metres of water.

Meanwhile, Grisada made it clear that Kaeng Suea Ten Dam was not being considered and the government would implement the “Sa Eiab model”, consisting of four small reservoirs, instead.

A proposal to resume Kaeng Suea Ten Dam was one of 134 development projects worth Bt6.5 billion that former deputy prime minister Somsak Thepsutin asked Prayut to consider at the meeting.

Earlier this month, villagers in Phrae province issued a statement slamming Somsak’s intention to revive the long-abandoned plan. They asked for the “Sa Eiab model” to manage irrigation to cope with drought in summer.

An initial investigation showed that the injured officers were riding in a pickup on their way to buy supplies at a market in Sisakorn district when a group of heavily-armed militants hiding at the roadside opened fire at them.

Police were alerted about the attack at 9.40am and found spent bullet casings and traces of blood at the scene as well as a bullet-riddled pickup that they towed to a secure location.

The shooting injured four soldiers – Sergeant Thanakorn Tannisai, 40, Sergeant Wissanu Muesanthat, 31, Kamjorn Tanma, 35 and Wissanu Chamnanna, 29 – as well as a villager identified as Tuwae-ahsoh Talipoh.

None of the soldiers was seriously hurt but they were all sent to Naradhiwasrajanagarindra Hospital in Muang district for treatment.

Following another incident at 10.12am, a ranger unit deployed an armoured personnel carrier about two kilometres from the first attack site to provide protection for officials gathering evidence.

The rangers left the vehicle and were talking to paramilitary officers when a bomb planted at the roadside went off. The rangers reported suffering slight ear concussions and chest pain.

Militants had earlier triggered three attacks in separate incidents on Monday night, none of which resulted in injuries.

Bombs exploded against three utility poles at the Kilometre 26 marker in Betong district in Yala at 7.40pm, damaging a car as well as the poles and causing a blackout that was still ongoing at press time.

Then in Narathiwat’s Sungai Padi district at 9.50pm, insurgents fired M-79 grenades at a ranger unit, but missed. Militants also set fire to tyres, deployed spikes and cut down trees to block highway traffic at a nearby area.

Police deputy spokesman Pol Colonel Krissana Pattanacharoen said national police chief Pol General Chakthip Chaijinda had responded to the attacks by ordering a tightening of security in the region as militants appeared to be seeking to cause turbulence during the holiday period.

Chakthip will visit the area soon to be briefed about the situation and to give moral support to officers.

The mayor also offered a reward of Bt30,000 for anyone who could provide information leading to the arrest of the culprit. His post last Friday went viral and the German man, who was identified as Bernd Roehrich, 50, was detained on Monday.

Investigator Pol Lt Colonel Chartchai Nakpaksee said the suspect confessed that he destroyed palm trees and other trees at a public garden close to Krabi River out of anger when his girlfriend left him.

Chartchai said that the suspect had a record for renting a motorcycle then filling it up with water. He will be charged with destroying public property.

The six men and a woman -were also ordered to pay Bt500,000 compensation to the mother of the victim.

However, Anantachai Chaiyadej, who represents the victim’s family, said he would appeal the verdict, claiming the sentences should all have been harsher.

“They should have been convicted of premeditated murder, the charge that investigators failed to press against them,” he said.

Four of the defendants were found guilty of murder, but not of premeditated murder.

Anantachai has another connection to the case as his office is near the bakery where the victim, 36-year-old Somkiat Srichan, worked and in front of which he was fatally stabbed.

The attack occurred on May 1 last year when the seven defendants attacked the bakery after a dispute that started earlier in the day.

The dispute arose after the convicts ridiculed Somkiat for his physical disabilities and Somkiat reportedly responded by insulting them.

CCTV footage showed the brutal attack, which led to severe public condemnation of the perpetrators.

Somkiat’s mother Thongkham Srichan, 67, has refused to cremate his body as she sought justice for him.

“I will consult my relatives as to whether now is an appropriate time for the cremation to take place,” she said.

Initially, there was widespread speculation that the defendants would get off lightly given that some of them were the sons of policemen.

Convicted of murdering Somkiat were Phirapon Yospong-anan, 22, Akradej Tassana, 23, Monmanas Saengpho, 22, and Arin Yospong-anan, 18.

Jatuporn Jansopa, 19, Mek Pornkraisorn, 20, and Monmanas’ girlfriend Natnicha Ritlamlert, 19, were found guilty of abetting the killing.

Akradej, Jatuporn and Arin were also convicted of trespassing.

All except Natnicha were fined Bt1,000 for carrying weapons in a public place.

The prison sentences were 19 years for Akradej and Arin, 18 years for Phirapon and Monmanas, 13 years for Jatuporn, and 12 years for Mek and Natnicha.

Their representative, Anong Laonukul, called on the Justice Ministry for help on Tuesday.

Anong said the chairman of a community financial bank in Kalasin’s Tha Khantho district had encouraged people to apply for Bt200,000 loans from the Government Housing Bank and transfer the money to the institution in exchange for Bt10,000 rewards and a promise that the institution would repay their loans.

The chairman remained unidentified on Tuesday.

“When we went to the bank, we did not have to produce any collateral. There were guarantors for us already,” Anong said.

There were also records of some repayments by the institutions, leading many more people to believe the claim, he said.

“In the end, nearly 300 people agreed to seek loans for the community financial bank. Some of them have found themselves owing up to Bt600,000, Bt200,000 directly from the loan they sought and Bt400,000 more from their financial obligations as guarantors,” Anong said.

He urged the Justice Ministry to consider treating the case as special and take actions against people who had defrauded the debtors.

The ministry’s deputy permanent secretary, Tawatchai Thaikyo, accepted the petition from Anong and promised to look into the complaint.

“If the investigation shows this is a public fraud case, we will assign the Department of Special Investigation to launch its own investigation,” he said.

Launched in September, the campaign engaged more than 100 Thai celebrities and high-profile influencers from business, entertainment, politics, sports, art, culture, religion and the press, as well as 15,200 members of the public to pledge “I am #IvoryFree”.

“We need to change the perception that ivory is a symbol of status and wealth. The ‘I am #IvoryFree’ campaign has proven to be a great way to involve the Thai public in helping the world understand that consumer decisions have a direct impact on the poaching crisis,” said US Ambassador Glyn Davies, who joined the campaign in September.

As part of the campaign, social influencers ranging from celebrities to politicians, business leaders, diplomats, beauty queens, reporters and sport stars invited all Thai people to create an ivory-free photo at www.ivoryfreethai.org and post their image on their social media profiles with a message on why they are making the pledge with hashtags including #IvoryFree.

The campaign also invited popular social media platforms to integrate and use messages from this campaign to create their own content suitable for their followers.

The illicit trade of ivory and poaching claims up to 33,000 elephants globally per year. Many governments around the world have banned the domestic sale of ivory. The Thai government has taken several steps towards this goal, including introducing the Elephant Ivory Act and prohibiting the sale of African elephant ivory.

Ivory Free is an initiative of WildAid, running in China, Hong Kong, the US and Thailand since 2014.

“The ‘I am #IvoryFree’ campaign shows that the Thai public is doing what they can to help save elephants from the poaching crisis,” said John Baker, managing director of WildAid. “We hope to see less tolerance for ivory in society and much less demand, because when the buying stops, the killing can too.”

He acknowledged the National Council for Peace and Order ban on the practice deemed unsafe, but said the government understood it has long been the norm and the ban is not enforced.

Chayaphon warned, though, that anyone doing so should for their own safety not sit on the edges of the truck bed or drink alcohol while travelling.

He said his department, as its main mission for this New Year, has been encouraging people to respect traffic laws.

“We will use every social measure to prevent accidents on the roads during the holidays,” he said. “We encourage communities and families to look after one another and make sure everyone is complying with road safety regulations.”

In Yala at 7.40pm, a bomb exploded against a utility pole at the Kilometre 26 marker in Betong district, damaging a car as well as the pole and causing a blackout.

In Narathiwat’s Sungai Padi district at 9.50pm, insurgents fired M-79 grenades at a ranger unit, but missed.

Nearby they burned tyres, deployed spikes and cut down trees to block highway traffic.