Land rights activists meet PM

BANGKOK, October 2 (TNA) - Some 30 representatives of many activist groups met Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra at Bangkok's Government House Tuesday morning, seeking her administration's assistance to solve grassroots problems. During the 20-minute meeting, the civil representatives demanded that the Thai government solve such grassroots problems as land rights, stateless people and impacts from the Pak Mun Dam construction project and land expropriations. Conclusions for the talks have not yet been reached, but the prime minister promised to look into all the demands and to hold meetings of agencies concerned to discuss solutions to the problems. The representatives asked that the prime minister head all panels tasked with solving the problems herself to speed up their solutions. Marking the UN World Habitat Day, which falls on October 1 this year, over 1,500 members of habitat and land rights networks from across Thailand, meanwhile, rallied at the UN regional office in Bangkok, as well as the nearby Ministry of Transport and the Government House on Monday, demanding that the government include habitat and land rights problems of the poor on the national agenda. (TNA)