Vendors won’t bow to BMA relocation order
SUPOJ WANCHAROEN
Bangkok Post, Thailand
Talks between the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) and Bo Bae market garment vendors fighting a relocation order collapsed yesterday with both sides refusing to back down.
Deputy city clerk Ratthapol Meethanathavorn said Narongchai Nattaphan, representing the coalition of vendors under the name Bo Bae Ruam Jai Club, expressly told him in the meeting that the traders were determined not to leave the market.
The new area proposed for the traders has been developed from the site of an old cinema. But the vendors insist they cannot afford the rental fees at the new location.
The BMA had set yesterday as the deadline for relocation, but hundreds of vendors camped out at the market on Sunday night in protest against the order.
Protesters panicked when two excavators were seen in the market area yesterday morning. However, city officials calmed them, assuring them the trucks were there for unrelated pavement improvements. Mr Ratthapol told the vendors to apply for assistance through the Pomprap Sattru Phai District Office. He said the vendors should come back to him when they and the district office had reached a conclusion.
