PROTEST PLANNED AFTER COURT REJECTS COMPLAINTS

       Map Ta Phut residents yesterday faced double blows in their efforts against expansion of an industrial estate in Rayong province - a request to temporarily delay the construction of 76 new factories was turned down, and a lawsuit accusing high-ranking officials of negligence in enforcing protective measures in the estate dismissed.
       The Central Administrative Court's decision to turn down the first request has prompted protest leaders to threaten a mass rally on September 9 to blockade the Map Ta Phut estate and seaports connected to it.
       Sutthi Atchasai said Rayong people did not want to hamper the massive investment in their home district but would like to see pollution-control conditions relating to the project were followed under constitutional requirements. "We are contemplating blockading the seaports and the estate, including the sites of the 76 new factories to be constructed soon," he added.
       Sutthi led 42 villagers to submit a petition to the court yesterday morning asking it to issue an injunction to temporarily order a halt to the coming construction of the 76 factories in an expansion phase of the estate until new environmental impact assessment (EIA) studies were conducted.
       The judges later ruled the court could not halt the construction but would wait for more information from authorities.
       A companion petition was also lodged with the court accusing eight people - five Cabinet ministers and heads of three regulatory bodies overseeing pollution-control measures - of negligence that resulted in the construction of the 76 factories going ahead without new EIA studies.
       The second petition also requested that the eight issue more pollution-control regulations and that three of the five ministers - overseeing Industry, Energy, and Transport Ministries - revoke licences already granted to construction projects outside the estate that would soon begin without EIA or other conditions being followed.
       Srisuwan Janya, a lawyer allied with the villagers' group, who also represented two non-governmental organisations advocating environment protection and against global warming, said the eight violated laws by approving the construction without a public referendum and without giving mandatory approval for the setup of an independent body to study the projects.
       The judges ruled in the afternoon that, in the first petition, the villagers failed to provide information on when exactly the construction would begin and end; and in the second petition, the court would wait for the eight to submit their case to the court.