New Thesaban geocodes

Last month, the CCAATT table with the geocodes of the central administrative units, and the RCODE table of geocodes for the registration offices were updated. While there were no changes in the CCAATT table - except that obsolete codes were once again removed from the file - a few municipalities were added to the RCODE table. But since it is impossible to assign a TIS:1099 compatible code to every municipality as long as the municipality codes are at the same level as the district codes, these newly added codes don't reduce the number of municipalities without code significantly.

• 9069: Ko Taeo (เทศบาลตำบลเกาะแต้ว), Mueang Songkhla District, Songkhla Province. Was upgraded to municipality August 2008
• 9068: Thung Lan (เทศบาลตำบลทุ่งลาน), Khlong Hoi Khon District, Songkhla Province. Was upgraded to municipality July 2008
• 5765: Huai So (เทศบาลตำบลห้วยซ้อ), Chiang Khong District, Chiang Rai Province. Was upgraded to municipality October 2011
• 4566: Ma-ue (เทศบาลตำบลมะอึ), Thawat Buri District, Roi Et Province. Was upgraded to a municipality July 2008.
• 4565: Niwet (เทศบาลตำบลนิเวศน์), Thawat Buri District, Roi Et Province. Was upgraded to a municipality July 2008.
• 4061: Nong Tum (เทศบาลตำบลหนองตูม), Mueang Khon Kaen District, Khon Kaen Province. Was upgraded to municipality July 2008.
• 4060: Muang Wan (เทศบาลตำบลม่วงหวาน), Nam Phong District, Khon Kaen Province. Was upgraded to municipality July 2008.
• 4059: Na Kha (เทศบาลตำบลนาข่า), Mancha Khiri District, Khon Kaen Province. Was upgraded to municipality October 2009.
• 4058: Non Sombun (เทศบาลตำบลโนนสมบูรณ์), Khao Suan Kwang District, Khon Kaen Province. Was upgraded to municipality July 2009.
• 3467: Mueang Si Khai (เทศบาลตำบลเมืองศรีไค), Warin Chamrap District, Ubon Ratchathani Province. Was upgraded to municipality October 2009.
• 3466: Phon Ngam (เทศบาลตำบลโพนงาม), Det Udom District, Ubon Ratchathani Province. Was upgraded to municipality October 2009.

The only other changes in the table to its previous version from March 2012 were several municipal status changes and a few name changes. Interestingly, in Roi Et the strange codes 4568 and 4567 referring to no valid municipality were not re-used, though there were removed from the list in this update. Also, as can be seen be the dates when the municipalities were created, sometimes a municipality created more recently got a code while other upgraded before still have received no code.

Changwat Bua Yai in discussion

Khun Wisarut from the 2bangkok forum has posted some news about the re-emergence of the plan to split off some part of Nakhon Ratchasima province. Since Khorat is such a big province, both by area (20494 km², the largest of all provinces) and by population, with 2.6 million it is second after Bangkok. And also by the number of districts it would make sense to split off some of the 32 districts to make a new province.

The situation is quite opposite with Ubon Ratchathani - whereas Khorat was never changed since its creation as Boriwen Nakhon Ratchasima in 1899 [Gazette], Ubon Ratchathani was split twice.

• Amnat Charoen in 1993 [Gazette]
• Yasothon in 1972 [Gazette]

Without these changes, Ubon would be larger than Khorat both by area and by population. Of course there were plans to split off parts of Khorat in past, the one most advanced was the 1955 plan to split off Bua Yai and Phutthaisong from Buriram to make a new province to be named Pathom Thong, which however was halted after the 1957 coup. The latest attempt was now started by Phuea Thai MP Koson Patthama (นายโกศล ปัทมะ) from Nakhon Ratchasima constituency 5, which includes Bua Yai district. There is however a significant opposition to this plan, most significantly by local patriots who worry about the unity of their historical heritage. To get an idea of whether this plan would make sense or not it would be great to have a scientific study on the effects creation of Amnat Charoen province, but at least in English there seem to be nothing like that.

A one-hour TV discussion was uploaded to YouTube, but my Thai is way to bad to follow any of it.

The new province is supposed to include eight districts, all of them were originally part of the district Bua Yai (อำเภอบัวใหญ่).

• 1939: Khong (อำเภอคง) split from Bua Yai [Gazette].
• 1957: Prathai (อำเภอประทาย) split from Bua Yai [Gazette].
• 1961: Non Daeng (อำเภอโนนแดง) was split from Prathai [Gazette].
• 1976: Ban Lueam (อำเภอบ้านเหลื่อม) split from Khong [Gazette].
• 1986: Kaeng Sanam Nang (อำเภอแก้งสนามนาง) split from Bua Yai [Gazette]
• 1997: Bua Lai (อำเภอบัวลาย, Gazette) and Sida (อำเภอสีดา, Gazette) were split from Bua Yai.

The province Bua Yai (จังหวัดบัวใหญ่) would cover 2149 km² (10.5% of the whole province) and 375,000 citizen (14% of whole province). It would thus fit with the conditions for creating a new province - but not sure if there would be a consensus of the population to establish this province.