Bangkok officials have been threatened with severe punishment if they allow street vendors to return to pavements they have been cleared from.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Authority (BMA) warned it could transfer officials to inactive posts for neglecting to do their duties, Thai PBS reported.
The warning came at a meeting between the heads of Bangkok’s 50 districts and city police chiefs of 21 districts.
The meeting heard that a few street vendors had returned to trade on pavements that had been reclaimed by the BMA, at Victory Monument, Ramkhamkaeng and Saphan Lek.
The BMA has reclaimed 39 street pavements at 21 districts, evicting some 14,876 vendors.
Wallop Suwande, the chairman of the Bangkok governor’s advisory board, insisted on zero tolerance, despite only a few vendors having returned.
He added that the vendors on the pavements at Pak Khlong Talat flower market, which the BMA plans to clear next month, would be allowed to trade until Feb. 28.
More than 1,400 street vendors will be forced to move.
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