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Din Daeng residents to protest
About 500 residents of Bangkok's Din Daeng Housing Estate will protest in front of Government House this morning and urge Deputy Prime Minister Paiboon Wattanasiri-tham to revoke the National Housing Authority (NHA) resolution to demolish 20 run-down residential blocks.
Since the NHA's board had ignored their request to repair the buildings, residents will appeal to Paiboon for justice, said Ratchareuk Paorohit, a leader of the residents' group.
If their request is not met, they will appeal to the Privy Council, he added.
Paiboon, also the social development and human security minister, will visit the residents for talks this evening.
NHA governor Pornsak Boonyodom said its board had revised its schedule for major talks with residents. They were previously slated to be from July 2-6, but were postponed because talks with small groups of residents had not helped to make all 1,000 families understand the issue.
The NHA will hold two rounds of talks at the weekend, followed by talks with 10 smaller groups, each representing two buildings of the 20 scheduled for demolition.
This would be a better approach to help make the residents see the necessity to demolish and rebuild the doomed flats, Pornsak said.
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