Thailand deals with drought, drugs

BANGKOK, February 11 (TNA) - Thai Interior Minister General Anupong Paojinda has ordered provincial governors nationwide to closely monitor the drought situation in their respective areas and provide immediate assistance to locals and farmers, while also urgently cracking down drugs in their areas, if any. General Anupong made the instruction when chairing a meeting with the provincial governors, through a video conference system, in Bangkok on Wednesday, stressing on measures to cope with and address the drought problem. The interior minister ordered the provincial governors nationwide to survey water sources and agricultural areas in their respective areas in order to handle drought by providing water for local consumers and farmlands. The interior minister assigned his ministry's Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation to take care of clean water for locals' consumption and assigned provincial governors to follow up the overall drought situation in their respective areas and to declare drought-stricken areas for urgent response, if necessary, based on proper procedures. Besides, the interior minister instructed all the provincial governors to seriously prevent and suppress narcotics-related problems in their areas, covering labour, human trafficking and prostitution issues, through existing administrative mechanisms, namely organising activities to ease demand for drugs and to stop a spread of narcotics. (TNA)