PM visits royal project in Thai North, anti-government group shuns reform forum

CHIANG MAI, THAILAND, December 14 (TNA) - Caretaker Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is still in Chiang Mai in the Thai North, her home province, visiting a royal development project on Saturday, as the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), now the strongest anti-government group, announced on Friday evening not to participate in the government-organized political reform forum on December 15. Yingluck inspected progress of the Nong Hoy Royal Development Project in Chiang Mai's Mae Rim District, where Thai economic crops are now grown in parallel with its opening up as an eco-tourist site to generate income to locals instead of its previous status as an opium plantation. The area, which has already been declared a narcotics-free zone, has also been maintained as an upstream conservation zone. In Bangkok, her ruling Pheu Thai Party blasted the anti-government PDRC for finally deciding not to participate in the government-sponsored political reform forum, aimed at finding ways to resolve the domestic political strife, which was set to be organized at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre in the capital on Sunday.(TNA)