Residents of the Pom Mahakan community have filed a petition to the PM, pleading for a multilateral steering committee to review their eviction by Bangkok authorities.
On 6 July 2016, representatives of the Pom Mahakan community submitted a petition to the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) disputing the demolition of the community, reported BBC Thai.
According to the petition, the community wants the government to appoint a committee, which would comprise academics, legal experts, urban planners, NGOs and government officials, to adjudicate the eviction. The petition also states that Panadda Diskul, the OPM Minister, should be the chair of the steering committee.
The petition was filed due to residents’ fear that the Bangkok Metropolitan Division (BMA) might break its promise to the community that it will not go ahead with the demolition without consent of the local people.
More than 300 people live in the Pom Mahakan community. The community is almost as old as Bangkok itself. But the BMA, citing a 2002 cabinet resolution and a 2004 Administrative Court order, wants to demolish the cluster of wooden houses behind the fortress wall and develop the area into a public park.
Residents of Pom Mahakan protest against BMA's demolition plan (Photo from BBC Thai)
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