Thursday, May 28, 2009

Petition to create King Amphoe in Chumphon

Published in the Royal Gazette on May 22 was a petition by the member of parliament Suwaroj Palang (สุวโรช พะลัง) requesting the creation of a new minor district in his home district Tha Sae, Chumphon province.

He argues that the subdistrict Rap Ro (ตำบลรับร่อ, highlighted in the map above) is a large subdistrict, covering 23 administrative village, and is also nearly 100 kilometer from the district office and has a population exceeding 20,000 people. Also its location at the boundary to Myanmar makes its administration more difficult.

The answer by the Ministry of Interior which is included in the publication first reiterates the preconditions to create a minor district as decided by the cabinet on November 2 2004. I had listed these preconditions from 2003 earlier, the ones listed here are slightly different.
  1. no less than 25,000 people
  2. 4 subdistricts
  3. distance from old district (office) no less than 20 kilometers
  4. must receive approval from the Tambon councils or TAO councils, district officer and provincial administration
Additionally there are special cases in which these strict points can be overruled - tourism, problems with insurgency, boundary location or royal projects.

Specific to Rap Ro, the answer then states that the population is only 17,313 people (the number from the DOPA population statistics 2008), and also the distance is only 45 kilometer. Only if any of the special cases applies the province administration is invited to prepare a report and send it to the Ministry for discussion in the cabinet.

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