05 July 2003

ENVIRONMENT

Hundreds of people in Mae Taeng district have renewed their protest against a mining project owned by a brother-in-law of Deputy Agriculture Minister Newin Chidchob.

Villagers from Mae Taeng and nearby districts rallied at the provincial hall on Thursday and handed in a letter protesting against the construction of a calcite mine and a rock quarry in tambon Mae Hor Phra, citing concerns for their environment.

Banchong Ruansupa, a protest leader, said the villagers had to renew their protest since no action was taken to halt the project despite their June 22 petition to the prime minister.

The protesters questioned the transparency in the granting of concessions to the project.

They also said they did not want rock-blasting operations in their neighbourhood ``under any circumstances'' for fear of severe pollution.

In their protest letter submitted yesterday, the villagers called on the provincial authority to stop commercial cutting of trees in their area and to look for irregularities in the granting of approval for the project by the tambon administration.

They also demanded the province seek to revoke the mining concession and rock-blasting permits granted to the project owner, Ram Supa, whose father is Mr Newin's father-in-law Khanaen Supa.

The protesters yesterday showed a name-list of 2,650 local people who have been opposing Mr Ram's quarry since 2000.

Officials yesterday inspected the project site to gather facts for a report to be presented to the provincial governor on Monday.

Meanwhile, Chiang Mai industrial office chief Wanchai Pipatsamut said Mr Ram's requests to begin mining operations have already been rejected seven times since he assumed office.

Somchai Wongsawat, director of the basic industry and mining office Region 3, said the environmental policy office had recently asked the Industry Ministry to seek environmental impact assessment studies with a view to settling the dispute over the project.