Protest leader Kanokkarn Wongchaiya said residents were gathering evidence and details about officials’ alleged wrongdoing, a lack of transparency and irregularities before they acted. In early September, villagers held a macabre protest against the project by erecting protest signs made of cloth that is typically used to wrap corpses at their homes and various sites in their communities. Villagers said they did not want the sugar factory and biomass power plant to be built near their communities and milk cattle cooperatives because it would affect milk production as well as the cultivation of mangoes for export and off-season longans. Villager Somjit Panpeng, 56, said the community would suffer from pollution if the power plant were built, while jobs and lifestyles would be harmed. Resident Surin Yoosomboon urged state agencies to investigate the issue and recognise the villagers’ problems with what he termed “investors’ greed”.

Source: The Nation Bangkok October 31, 2017 07:18 UTC