Showing posts with label Bueng Kan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bueng Kan. Show all posts

Thursday, March 26, 2020

Bueng Kan town to be created

When the new province of Bueng Kan was created in 2011, there was one thing which was strikingly different to the previous batch of province creation - the capital of the province wasn't made a town (Thesaban Mueang). When the TIS1099 geocodes were assigned to the districts as well as the municipalities, the usual 99 for the provincial capital was left out, Bueng Kan subdistrict municipality was assigned the code 3898 instead.

At that time the actual location of the provincial administrative offices wasn't decided yet, but by now its construction is long completed in the southern part of Bueng Kan subdistrict, in area administrated by the Bueng Kan subdistrict administrative organization. Apparently now the time has come to create the first town in Bueng Kan province.

In the 5th meeting of the 1st board to consider draft laws on February 19 2020, a municipal change in Bueng Kan was discussed [transcript]  . But since I cannot access that website for 5 years already, only thanks to the Google cache I can read the meeting agenda, which includes "รวมองค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลบึงกาฬ เทศบาลตำบลวิศิษฐ์ และเทศบาลตำบลบึงกาฬ อำเภอบึงกาฬ จังหวัดบึงกาฬ และเปลี่ยนแปลงเขตและฐานะเป็นเทศบาลเมืองบึงกาฬ" which means that three local governments are to be merged into the new Bueng Kan town.

Bueng Kan subdistrict municipality covers parts of both Wisit and Bueng Kan subdistrict, and the other two local governments the remaining areas, thus the new Bueng Kan town will fully cover two subdistricts. It was only in 1988 that Bueng Kan subdistrict was split into these two subdistricts [Gazette], until then the main settlement was right in the center of the subdistrict.


Though I just learned about this pending change few weeks before it will become effective by publication in the Royal Gazette, it was in the making for much longer time already. In June 2019, the people in the three affected local governments could vote on whether they approve it.

Friday, February 21, 2014

ISO 3166-2 code for Bueng Kan

When the province of Bueng Kan was created in 2011, it quite quickly got the code 38 assigned by the Department of Provincial Administration - which was the obvious choice anyway as there was no other free number in the number range for the northeastern provinces. While there was no official new version of the TIS1099 national standard - the latest is still from 2005 - this list maintained by DOPA is in fact the current working copy of the national standard. The ISO 3166-2 standard, giving codes for the first-level subdivisions of all countries, uses the same codes prefixed with a TH-, but none of the updates since 2011 covered Thailand so far.

Today, ISO announced that they have changed the system of updating these codes named "Online Browsing Platform", instead of the newsletters it now has live updates on their website, to which one can subscribe - for free but one has to register. But actually thanks to the update scanner plugin in Firefox I will get notified whenever the page on Thailand will be updated, without having to register with ISO.

Anyhow, though none of the newsletters announced the code for Bueng Kan yet, with the change to the new platform the code for Bueng Kan is now also included, and without any surprise it is TH-38.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

License plate background for Bueng Kan

Over the Christmas days, the Royal Gazette continued to publish announcements since these days are no holidays in Thailand. On the 25th, four announcements of provincial graphical license plates for passenger cars were published, among them the license plate for the latest province Bueng Kan created in 2011.

The graphic shows the same elements already present on the provincial seal - Phu Tok hill, the abundant water in the province, most notably the Mekong river, and the forests. Especially if comparing with the colored province seal, the similarity of the two artworks becomes obvious.

The other three provinces which get a new license plate are Satun, Kamphaeng Phet and Loei. I will write up a separate blogpost on them in the next days, but for those who cannot wait can find the graphic already in the web album.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Final set of provincial seal stamps

Last week the final set of the stamp series with the provincial emblems was announced in the Royal Gazette, published on September 14, signed on July 23, but already effective June 28 when the stamps were first sold.

This final 7th set of stamps now includes the provinces at the end of the Thai alphabet, and additionally Bueng Kan as that province did not exist yet when the set with alphabetical sorting was at the letter . Thus the provinces this time are Ang Thong, Udon Thani, Uttaradit, Uthai Thani, Ubon Ratchathani, Amnat Charoen and Bueng Kan. But since these are only seven emblems and like all previous sets ten stamps are issued together, three additional motives at to be found. While I would have preferred historical emblems no longer in use - for example the provinces Phra Nakhon, Thonburi or those in the occupied areas during World War II - instead the three national symbols were chosen.

However it seems I have a lot of bad luck with collecting items on the administrative subdivisions. When my wife purchased this miniature sheet, the one published summer last year was no longer available - but since my last trip to Thailand was earlier that year I now have one sheet missing in my collection. Strangely, almost all of the older sheets were also still available. I hope it was just temporarily out of stock at the central post office and I can get it next year, but if anyone can get me one before I'd be grateful.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Bueng Kan emblem in the Royal Gazette

In March, the emblem of Bueng Kan province was officially announced in the Royal Gazette - I just didn't notice it directly because the title of the announcement is simply
ประกาศสำนักนายกรัฐมนตรี เรื่อง กำหนดภาพเครื่องหมายราชการตามพระราชบัญญัติเครื่องหมายราชการ พุทธศักราช ๒๔๘๒ (ฉบับที่ ๒๖๖)
Announcement of the Office of the Prime Minister about government emblems according to the government act of 2482 (Amendment 266)
So there are already 266 announcements with government emblems, and browsing through them shows a wide range of government agencies, ministries or departments, and many others. But of the administrative subdivisions, only the provinces are covered by these announcements, and there are only four such announcements so far:
  • All 75 provinces in a single announcement from 2004 [Gazette]
  • Krung Thep Maha Nakhon from 1973 [Gazette]
  • Chachoengsao emblem change from 2007 [Gazette]
  • Bueng Kan from 2012 [Gazette]

Monday, February 13, 2012

Bueng Kan province hall

Khun Wisarut at the 2bangkok forum has found an update on the Bueng Kan province hall, including several sketches of the proposed building originally posted at lockerz. While the building itself looks very similar to province halls in other provinces - four stories, a square building with a large open space in the interior, the main news is that the planned location of the province hall has changed. Originally, it was talked about building it near Non Sombun at highway 222, right next to the Bueng Kan campus of Udonthani Rajabhat University, but now it sounds like it will be located along highway 212 in Ban Tha Khrai (บ้านท่าไคร้), about 6 kilometer southeast of Bueng Kan town.

Monday, January 9, 2012

FIPS 10-4 code for Bueng Kan

The US Standard FIPS 10-4 contains codes for the country subdivisions all over the world, thus also including Thailand. However, in 2008 the standard was withdrawn, so I this was off my radar since then - I only occasionally try find the first two versions of this standard (FIPS 10-1 and FIPS 10-2) to see how a few oddities with the codes could be explained.

Anyway, just today the page on the Thai provinces at statoids was updated, adding one sentence to it.
Update 6 to "Geopolitical Entities and Codes" is dated 2011-11-30. For Thailand, it assigns a FIPS code to Bueng Kan province.
It turns out that the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency of the US military - the same agency which was responsible for maintaining the FIPS 10 standard - continues to maintain the codes of this former standard under the name Geopolitical Codes. In fact, without the bureaucracy of the National Institute of Standards, it issues many more updates in a more timely manner. The latest update 6 from November 2011 now adds the code for Bueng Kan, 10 months after it was created.
THAILAND (FNC 369)
Add :
TH81 Bueng Kan
Unlike the previous changes in the FIPS codes, this time the province which was split did not receive a new code - e.g. Udon Thani changed from TH19 to TH76 with the creation of Nong Bua Lamphu. So I would have expected to see Nong Khai receiving the new code TH82 with this change.

The latest newsletter with updates of the ISO 3166-2 list from December 2011 still has no mention of Bueng Kan however, even though they just need to copy the code from TIS 1099. Or to be more exact the working copy by the Ministry of Interior, as there was no update for the Thai standard since 2005.

Update 2010-01-10:
I sent an email to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency if the retaining of the code for Bueng Kan was intentionally or not, and today received the answer that it was in fact intentionally and a change in the policy of handling the splitting of subdivisions.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Bueng Kan PAO office location

Sign at the Bueng Kan PAO office
Photo by Tom Isaan
Some time ago, I mentioned that I found the address for the office of the provincial administrative organization (PAO) of the new province Bueng Kan, but due to the nature of Thai addresses it is impossible to convert this into coordinates to point it on a map.

Now my reader Tom, who is traveling a lot within the Northeast of Thailand (Isaan), was in Bueng Kan and managed to find the office at plot 198, Mu 8 of Bueng Kan subdistrict.



View Bueng Kan administration in a larger map

In the above map, it is the easternmost marker, located close to the land office of Bueng Kan. As the building is already visible in the satellite imagery from 2003 and looks like the standard style of government offices from above, it would be interesting to know how the building was used before. As you see, I have already added the location to my Bueng Kan administration map, but also to Wikimapia and of course into my XML.

Now in the vicinity of the small town of Bueng Kan, the only office locations I still don't have are the TAO Bueng Kan and probably a bit further away the Wisit subdistrict municipality. But as Tom has already sent me other geotagged photos of administrative offices, I am sure whenever he spots either of these I will get them soon as well. And this is one way how every of my readers can help me - in case you can find the location of a TAO or municipality office just send me, and I will add them to my maps.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Bueng Kan emblem and flag?

Though I haven't yet found anything official on the province emblem yet, to my surprise a Youtube video showed up which at the beginning shows both a flag and an emblem for the new province.


The emblem, which is also the central element of the flag, shows Phu Tok hill surrounded by forests and with a lake in front - exactly the elements which were listed in the document I found recently. The flag shows this round emblem in middle, and three horizontal stripes purple-white-purple. No idea if the colors have any special meaning - if the date of creation of the province were used it should have featured green stripes, as March 23rd was a Wednesday and therefore had the color green.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Bueng Kan PAO logo competition

It seems like the PAO Bueng Kan (องค์การบริหารส่วนจังหวัดบึงกาฬ) does not want to wait until the official seal of the province is finalized, and unlike most other provinces goes for a seal with an artwork differing from that of the corresponding provincial seal. I have stumbled on a news posting on the website of the Bueng Kan Provincial Office of Non-Formal and Informal Education titled ประชาสัมพันธ์ประกวดตราเครื่องหมายขององค์การบริหารส่วนจังหวัดบึงกาฬ (Announce of contest [to design] emblem of PAO Bueng Kan).

However before you rush to check out the PDF which contains the rules of the contest and start drawing sketches - I discovered this news so late that today is already the deadline to submit the proposals, so unless they got no worthy designs the logo will be known soon. The winning design will be awarded 10,000 baht (360 US$), though I have no idea of the normal prices of logo designers in Thailand.

The logo is supposed to be either round or an ellipse with a maximum diameter of 5 centimeter, the name "Bueng Kan PAO" in the border, and for the motive inside has to choose items which have a connection to the province.

Another information gained from the PDF - the Bueng Kan PAO has its (temporary) office at plot 198 in Mu 8 of Bueng Kan subdistrict, thus not in the district office like the preliminary province administration. However, I have no idea where this office location is on Google Earth, as there's no easy way to translate a Thai address into coordinates.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Province emblem for Bueng Kan in the making

In the fifth meeting of the administrative staff of Bueng Kan province, the issue of the provincial seal has been on the agenda. In the transcript of the meeting I could find the following:
๓.๗ เครื่องหมายราชการ (ตราประจำจังหวัด) วัฒนธรรมจังหวัดบึงกาฬ
มติที่ประชุม ที่ประชุมรับทราบ ตามที่จังหวัดได้ให้ความเห็นชอบไปแล้วนั้น สำนักงาน วัฒนธรรมจังหวัด แจ้งยืนยันไปยังกรมศิลปากรแล้วซึ่งมี ๒ แบบ แบบที่๑. รูปภาพ แบบที่๒.แบบลายเส้น ขณะนี้สำนักช่างสิบหมู่กำลังนำเรียนให้อธิบดีลงนามในแบบให้ ความเห็นชอบ เครื่องหมายราชการ(ตราประจำจังหวัดบึงกาฬ) ประกอบด้วย
๑. ภูทอก หมายถึงภูเดี่ยวๆ โดดๆ
๒. น้ำ หมายถึง บึง หนองน้ำ ซึ่งทุกอำเภอมีแหล่งน้ำ
๓. ป่า หมายถึง ต้นไม้ ป่าไม้
My rough translation of the above
Government symbol (Province seal) culture of Bueng Kan
Resolution of the conference is that the province already approved, the provincial cultural academy has already submitted to the Fine Arts Department two models, one photograph and one drawing. The model should contain the three elements
1. Phu Thok means the single lone hill
2. Water refers to the swamps and lakes each district has
3. Forest stands for the forests
Thus if I did not misunderstand the above, the emblem is now in the final approval and should be officially announced soon. Sadly, the transcript did not include any draft drawing of the emblem, so I still have no idea of how it will actually look like.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Postal codes for Bueng Kan

The Thai Post has officially announced the postal codes for the new province Bueng Kan now. Not surprisingly, they all use the same prefix 38 as the TIS1099 province code, and to make the transition from Nong Khai postal codes to Bueng Kan postal codes as easy as possible, only the central part of Bueng Kan got a completely new number, whereas for all other areas only the prefix was exchanged. In detail this gives the following table.
AreaOld codeNew code
Mueang Bueng Kan, Bung Khla4314038000
Seka4315038150
So Phisai4317038170
Phon Charoen4318038180
Pak Khat4319038190
Si Wilai4321038210
Bueng Khong Long4322038220

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Geocodes for Bueng Kan

Somehow I totally missed that DOPA had updated their list of numerical codes already to include the codes for Bueng Kan province and its subdivisions. Though I already guessed that the province will get the code 38, and quite logically the Mueang Bueng Kan district will get the 3801, I had to wait for the list to have the codes for all other districts, subdistricts and the municipalities.

Before starting with the long table, I will already mention the general scheme used in the transfer of the codes from Nong Khai to Bueng Kan. The districts are in the same order as they were in Nong Khai, only obviously the numbers now run continuously from 1 to 8. The same holds for the subdistricts, the old order was used again, only the holes in the previous codes from the creation of new districts were omitted. The only strange thing is the code for the municipality Bueng Kan, which did not get the 3899 I would expect, but 3898. Maybe 3899 is left free for a new municipality to be created including the site of the yet to be built province hall?

NameTypeOld codeNew code
Bueng KanProvince38
Mueang Bueng KanDistrict43033801
Bueng KanSubdistrict430301380101
Non SombunSubdistrict430303380102
Non SombunSubdistrict430303380102
Nong Kheng1Subdistrict430304380103
Ho KhamSubdistrict430305380104
Nong LoengSubdistrict430306380105
Khong KongSubdistrict430307380106
Na SawanSubdistrict430310380107
Khai SiSubdistrict430311380108
ChaiyaphonSubdistrict430314380109
WisitSubdistrict430316380110
Kham Na DiSubdistrict430318380111
Pong PueaiSubdistrict430319380112
Phon CharoenDistrict43043802
Si ChomphuSubdistrict430401380201
Don Na YangSubdistrict430402380202
Phon CharoenSubdistrict430403380203
Nong Hua ChangSubdistrict430404380204
Waeng ChomphuSubdistrict430405380205
Pa FaekSubdistrict430406380206
Si SamranSubdistrict430407380207
So PhisaiDistrict43063803
SoSubdistrict430601380301
Nong Phan ThaSubdistrict430602380302
Si ChumphuSubdistrict430603380303
Kham KaeoSubdistrict430604380304
Bua ThumSubdistrict430605380305
Tham CharoenSubdistrict430606380306
Lao ThongSubdistrict430607380307
So PhisaiDistrict43063803
SekaDistrict43093804
SekaSubdistrict430901380401
SangSubdistrict430902380402
Tha Kok DaengSubdistrict430903380403
Ban ThongSubdistrict430906380404
Pong HaiSubdistrict430907380405
Nam ChanSubdistrict430908380406
Tha Sa-atSubdistrict430909380407
Nong ThumSubdistrict430912380408
Sok KamSubdistrict430913380409
Pak KhatDistrict43103805
Pak KhatSubdistrict431001380501
Nong YongSubdistrict431002380502
Na KangSubdistrict431003380503
Non SilaSubdistrict431004380504
Som SanukSubdistrict431005380505
Na DongSubdistrict431006380506
Bueng Khong LongDistrict43113806
Bueng Khong LongSubdistrict431101380601
Pho Mak KhaengSubdistrict431102380602
Dong BangSubdistrict431103380603
Tha Dok KhamSubdistrict431104380604
Si WilaiDistrict43123807
Si WilaiSubdistrict431201380701
Chumphu PhonSubdistrict431202380702
Na SaengSubdistrict431203380703
Na SabaengSubdistrict431204380704
Na SingSubdistrict431205380705
Bung KhlaDistrict43133808
Bung KhlaSubdistrict431301380801
Nong DoenSubdistrict431302380802
Khok KwangSubdistrict431303380803
Ho KhamMunicipality43773887
Nong KhengMunicipality43793888
WisitMunicipality43803889
Si WilaiMunicipality43833890
Bueng Khong LongMunicipality43843891
Pak KhatMunicipality43853892
Si PhanaMunicipality43863893
Tha Sa-atMunicipality43873894
So PhisaiMunicipality43903895
Phon CharoenMunicipality43923896
Don Ya NangMunicipality43933897
Bueng KanMunicipality43943898
1 Renamed to Non Sawang on March 3 2011, but still named Nong Kheng in the DOPA list

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

PAO elections in Nong Khai and Bueng Kan

This Sunday, the Provincial Administrative Organization (PAO) for the new province Bueng Kan will get elected, another step to make the new province completely operational.

The chairman of the PAO has to be elected, as well as the council of the PAO. When reading the article in Manager, to my surprise I noticed that it won't be elected from scratch, but those councilmen in the Nong Khai PAO council sent from the districts which now form Bueng Kan are already set, thus it is more a by-election to fill the vacant spaces, so the council again reaches its nominal size of 30 councilors. Therefore, the term of the council will end at the same day as it would have ended without the province creation. Correspondingly, in Nong Khai there will be also by-elections to fill the vacant spaces, these are to be held on July 16. As the Nong Khai PAO had 17 seats from the districts which now form Bueng Kan province, there are 13 seats which need to be elected now. In detail, these are
  • Mueng Bueng Kan - 4 seats
  • Ta Bo, Fao Rai - 2 seats
  • Phon Phisai - 3 seats
  • Si Chiang Mai, Rattanawapi - 1 seat
  • Pho Tak, Sa Khro, Sang Khon - no council election
The interesting thing would be the constituencies. For the PAO council, there are single-seated constituencies, thus those districts which now have to send more than one councilor needs to be divided into constituencies. But at the end of the term, there need to be different constituencies, as the number of seats per district will be different then. And an even more confusing situation could arise if one of the 17 councilors resigns or dies, then which constituencies are to be used for the by-election? The original one as used when that councilor was elected to the Nong Khai PAO? It would have been easier if the PAO council were to be elected from scratch, however that was apparently not possible as the PAO law states that the term of a councilor is four years.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Rename of Tambon Nong Kheng, Bueng Kan

Published in the Royal Gazette last Thursday, one subdistrict in Bueng Kan has been assigned a new name. Nong Kheng (หนองเข็ง) in Mueang Bueng Kan district has been renamed to Non Sawang (โนนสว่าง), probably as of the date the announcement was signed, March 4 2011. As it is written in the announcement
เนื่องจากมีชื่อซ้ำกับบ้านหนองเข็ง หมู่ที่ ๓ ตําบลหอคํา อําเภอบึงกาฬ จังหวัดหนองคาย ทำให้เกิดความสับสนในการประสานงานและติดต่อราชการซึ่งได้รับความเห็นชอบจากคณะกรรมการหมู่บ้านสภาเทศบาลตําบลหนองเข็งนายอําเภอบึงกาฬ และผู้ว่าราชการจังหวัด

Because the name is duplicate with Ban Nong Kheng, Mu 3 of Ho Kham subdistrict, Bueng Kan district, Nong Khai province, which creates confusion in coordination and contacting government service. Therefore received positive opinion from the village committee, municipal council of Nong Kheng, head district officer of Bueng Kan and the province governor of Nong Khai.
The change was then approved by the committee on name changes in their 5th meeting of 2010 on December 23, and the announcement signed by Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Interior Vichien Chavalit (วิเชียร ชวลิต) on March 4 2011. As the province Bueng Kan was created March 22, this announcement therefore still places the subdistrict into Nong Khai province.

The reason why the name Non Sawang was chose is quite easy - the first of the Muban in the subdistrict is named Ban Non Sawang, in fact none of the Muban of the subdistrict is named Nong Kheng. But originally, the name was chose correctly - Ho Kham subdistrict was created in 1975 [Gazette] by splitting off 8 Muban from Nong Kheng, including the Muban which gave the subdistrict its name. Thus in fact this rename does fix the confusing naming created in 1975, when they should have given the name Nong Kheng to the subdistrict containing the corresponding Muban.

There will probably be a second announcement on this rename later, as I guess that the subdistrict municipality Nong Kheng (เทศบาลตำบลหนองเข็ง) will be renamed accordingly as well.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Bueng Kan judiciary area

With its announcement in the Royal Gazette on May 23rd, the area of jurisdiction of the provincial court Bueng Kan (ศาลจังหวัดบึงกาฬ) has been adjusted to the boundaries of the newly created province [Gazette]. Though actually, no adjustment was needed, as the original creation of the provincial court in 1991 listed the same area, only that there were just 5 districts at that time which in the meantime had been split into eight.

Additionally, a juvenile and family court was established for Bueng Kan [Gazette]. And also the other two acts published on that day deal with the judiciary areas and Bueng Kan - the list of the provinces of the appeal court has been extended accordingly [Gazette], same as in the amendment to the criminal procedure act of 2520 [Gazette].

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Bueng Kan news

Again, some shorter news on the new province and it starting with being operational.

On May 3, the Royal Gazette contained the update on the province cluster regulation [Gazette], which now placed Bueng Kan into the cluster Upper Northeast 1 (ภาคตะวันออกเฉียงเหนือตอนบน 1) - not really surprising because Nong Khai was already in this cluster, so the boundaries of the cluster weren't changed, only the list of provinces within was extended.

In the cabinet meeting on May 4th, the nomination of Somphon Arunrotpanya (สมพงษ์ อรุณโรจน์ปัญญา) as first governor of Bueng Kan was approved. He already served as acting province governor since the province was established, but still was primary a deputy governor of Surin province.

And like for all other parts of Thailand, the Election Commission has announced the constituencies for Bueng Kan, which has been divided into two constituencies each covering four districts. Constituency One covers the districts Mueang Bueng Kan, So Phisai, Pak Khat and Bung Khla; Constituency Two the districts Seka, Phon Charoen, Si Wilai and Bueng Khon Long.

And finally, the province administration has started their website, same as all other provinces it has its own site in a go.th domain. Well, actually, the name bungkan.go.th isn't yet known in the name servers, but it is found in the header graphics, right now the site can only be found at an IP address assigned to the Ministry of Education. There isn't much content yet, some news, the resume of the province governor and the history and geography of the province. And I was visitor number 472.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Bueng Kan news

Four different news published in the last few days on various steps in making the new province Bueng Kan working.
  • The postal code is officially set to 38000, as expected before. It was announced in the ministerial order มท 0211.4/ว 1276. A PDF of this order I found however only states the code for the province, not the codes within the province.
  • The Provincial Administration Organization (PAO) of Nong Khai in its third session of this year has discussed the transfer of budget, funds and debt to the to be established PAO of Bueng Kan (Source: Manager).
  • As mentioned here before, the initial provincial slogan will be taken over from Bueng Kan district, whether it will be kept will be discussed with the seven districts (Source: Thairath).
  • Finally, the Election Commission has finished to draw the constituencies for the forthcoming election, splitting Bueng Kan into two constituencies - Constituency One will cover the districts Mueang Bueng Kan, So Phisai, Pak Khad and Bung Kla, Constituency Two the districts Seka, Phon Charoen, Si Wilai and Bueng Khong Long. I will cover it when it is published in the Royal Gazette, but you can find the whole list already at Manager.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Land office for Bueng Kan

With the creation of Bueng Kan province, secondary administrative offices have to be created or adjusted in their area of responsibility. Yesterday, announcements regarding the cadastre or land office (สำนักงานที่ดิน). There previously was already a branch office in Bueng Kan (สาขาบึงกาฬ) from the cadastre in Nong Khai, which was already created in 1996 [Gazette]. This branch office however did not cover the whole area of the new province, as So Phisai district was still under the head office in Nong Khai.

Thus now not only the branch office Bueng Kan gets upgraded to a full province cadastre office [Gazette], this first announcement also includes the change of area to be the same as the new province. Additionally, the branch office Seka has been renamed from Nong Khai to Bueng Kan. As this also means that the area of responsibility of the Nong Khai cadastre has to change, this was done in a second announcement [Gazette].

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Welcoming the 76th province Bueng Kan

The new province Bueng Kan is now officially there, making it the 76th province of Thailand. Yes, the 76th, because Bangkok is not a province, but a special administrative area - only because Bangkok is at the same administrative level as a province most of the time it is sloppily counted as a province as well.

In a very short article Bangkok Post reports on the inauguration celebration.
Interior Minister Chavarat Charnvirakul on Wednesday morning presided over the inauguration of the new province of Bung Kan, now officially the country's 77th province.
Mr Chavarat and Deputy Agriculture Minister Supachai Phosu joined thousands of people at a ceremony to open the city gate.
[...]
Sompong Arunrojpanya has been appointed first governor of the new province, which will have two MPs.

And probably not only Bangkok Post, but also all of the Thai media reported it to be the 77th province. On the English Wikipedia I have already reverted three times edits which claim Thailand to have 77 provinces, even though in the next sentence of the articles the special status of Bangkok is explained. One user even was so smart to modify the HTML comment I added after the number which I added to prevent this from happening, thinking there are 77 provinces plus Bangkok...

The first governor is Sompong Arunrojpanya (สมพงษ์ อรุณโรจน์ปัญญา), who was previously deputy province governor in Phitsanulok.