Thai PM to elaborate flood prevention plans

BANGKOK, Feb 3 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra ordered her subordinates on Friday to provide her with detailed flood prevention plans so that her forthcoming trip to visit people in areas affected by the country's massive flooding late last year, set from February 13-17, will be a journey for the local people’s happiness. Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Yongyuth Wichaidit said after his meeting with other Cabinet members of the ruling Puea Thai Party at Baan Phitsanulok in Bangkok, the official residence of the Thai prime minister, that Premier Yingluck has instructed the well-preparations for both her upcoming trip to follow up flood prevention projects in the affected areas and for her weekly talk program on February 11. Yongyuth told reporters that during the trip, the Puea Thai premier plans to inform local people of her government's effective plans to prevent renewed floods all the way from the beginning of rivers to their ends and of plans on flood rehabilitation, water resources management and disaster mitigation. According to the deputy premier, there will also be a disaster mitigation exercise in the central Lop Buri (ลพบุรี) Province and the prime minister hopes to see an overview of flood-related problems during her upcoming trip. The deputy prime minister insisted that the government has had concrete plans to satisfy the government's Strategic Committee on Water Resources Management (SCWRM), acknowledging, however, the administration's slow compensations for flood-affected households in Bangkok and adjacent provinces, namely Pathum Thani, Nonthaburi and Samut Sakhon, the latest areas hit by the country's widespread floods late last year, and promising all flood victims in the areas will receive the official compensations within 3-4 weeks.(TNA)