People’s Party, Oct 15 – “Nattapong” suggests the Prime Minister consider the government using Geocoding technology to help with flood relief faster, without having to wait for a “disaster victim certificate”
Mr. Nattapong Ruangpanyawut, Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representatives and Leader of the Prachachon Party, spoke about the government’s public relations request for people who were severely affected by the floods to quickly request a ‘disaster victim certificate’ from the local administrative organizations (LAOs) in the affected areas. He said that although it is a good thing that the government is trying to communicate to the public about the steps to receive compensation to avoid missing out, the main problem is that the process of requesting compensation through a disaster victim certificate may put more burden on the public than it should be, compared to the hardships that the victims are already facing.
Because in addition to the people having to request a certificate from the local
government organization, the process after that is that there must be a village-level public hearing and waiting for approval from the district and provincial disaster committees. The process period is set at a long time of up to 90 days.
Therefore, I would like to reiterate the original proposal that was debated in the parliament that it is time for the government to use the Geocoding system as basic information in considering compensation for the people. The government can use satellite images from the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) to overlay house number information according to coordinates on the world map (Geocoding). Thailand has already used this system in the work of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority, and the Thai Post Office, which already have house number information and house coordinates, but have never been used in cases where it should be used, such as flood compensation.
The government can use this databa
se to consider automatically providing compensation to disaster victims via the ‘Tang Rath’ application immediately. Or, the public can request it. If the information is verified to match the geocoding that there is a real flood, the money will be transferred immediately. Or, some money can be paid first for speed and to help in time for the victims’ needs.
The leader of the People’s Party also said that he sincerely hoped that the government, led by the Prime Minister, would consider this proposal, just like before when he had proposed measures to travel to cities after flooding and provide low-interest loans (soft loans) to affected private companies. He was pleased that the government had moved its policies in line with our proposals, resulting in measures such as “Half-Half Travel to the North”. Although there were some differences, he would like to support them in order to restore the economy after the disaster as soon as possible. -312.-Thai News Agency
Source: Thai News Agency
