Bangkok Post – City plan upsets consumer group

Small turnout for public hearings

The Thailand Consumer Council (TCC) will file a petition against Bangkok’s city plan with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Wednesday, citing shortcomings in public hearing processes that violate people’s rights.

Itbun Onwongsa, deputy secretary-general of the TCC, said the fourth revised edition of the city plan prepared by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration still lacks public awareness and interest.

“This goes against people’s rights,” he told participants at TCC’s Cities of Justice forum on Saturday.

“We have been monitoring the development of Bangkok’s city plan and have found many urban problems that still need to be addressed, such as flooding and traffic congestion. More than 5 million people live in Bangkok, and everyone has the right to express their opinion on the new project. plan,” he said.

The constitution states that the preparation of a city plan must undergo public hearings and involve the public. But the BMA failed to explain the implications of its city plan, and its public hearing was poorly attended.

The TCC wrote to the BMA asking for more people to attend the hearing, but the BMA did not respond. As a result, TCC approached the National Human Rights Commission to intervene.

Supattra Nakafiu, a member of the NHRC, said she initially agreed with the petition that the Bangkok City Council project may violate people’s rights such as the right to information, the right to participation, the right to a healthy environment and property rights, especially housing rights .

“We will investigate whether the Bangkok City Plan development process violates people’s rights. If we find a violation, we will send it to the BMA to find solutions,” she said.

Pornprom Okuchi, assistant secretary of the TCC’s real estate and housing subcommittee, said that from 2017 to date, 21,776 people have attended BMA public hearings out of Bangkok’s population of 5.4 million.

“This is less than one percent. This is unacceptable data for public hearings on important projects such as urban planning,” he said, adding that the revised city plan would add 148 roads and widen 200 canals.

Atawit Suwanpakdi, chairman of the industry minister’s advisory council, said he was keeping an eye on the BMA’s city plan. He discovered that the Khu Bon Water Supply Plan had not yet been included in the latest version.

He said the Hubon water retention plan had disappeared despite the government’s claim that it was a water retention zone in the eastern region of Bangkok capable of holding up to 870,000 million cubic meters of water.

Even though 130 rai of land was earmarked for a catchment area known as kamling (monkey cheek) in 2022, several residential complexes have been built by private firms.

“A water retention plan was prepared to expropriate the land, but the area was earmarked for housing projects. I’ll wait to see if this plan is finally included in the city plan. If not, I will refer this issue to the National Antimonopoly Committee. “Anti-corruption commission,” he said.

Thawitong Lathong, a representative of the Klong Toei district, said the community had sacrificed public land for the development of Bangkok’s port and moved four important temples from the area.

“Today we would like to participate in the development of the fourth Bangkok City Plan by asking for 20% of the port area to be transferred to the 26 Khlong Toey communities.

“Since we learned that part of the port will be allocated for an entertainment complex project, we would like to reserve some of the land for our people so that we can have a safe place to call home,” he said.