By Thai Newsroom Reporters
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER-cum-Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul confirmed today (Jan.29) he could immediately stop supplying power to Myanmar across the shared border only if ordered to do so by a government agency in charge of national security.
The Provincial Electricity Authority under care of the Ministry of Interior could immediately terminate the daily power supply for Myanamr’s Tachileik and Myawaddy townships across the border from Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai and Mae Sot district of Tak respectively only if formally ordered to do so by a national security-related agency, according to the deputy prime minister-cum-interior minister.
Anutin commented that he himself could not stop the power supply to those Myanmar townships unless given an order from a national security-related agency which, he said, may have concluded that it had been used by transnational criminals such as call-centre scammers and drug dealers and that he would be immediately obliged to have the PEA shut it off.
The deputy prime minister-cum-interior minister declined to name the agency in charge of national security which may finally flash an order for a freeze to the PEA power supply.
He apparently referred to agencies under care of the Ministry of Defence or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which, he said, had earlier streamlined a specific trade agreement for the PEA to supply power on a daily basis to those border townships in the war-torn country.
Nevertheless, he said the power supply has been primarily carried out on humanitarian basis where schools, nursery units, hospitals and villages reportedly exist alongside criminal dens in those Myanmar townships currently under control of ethnic rebel groups.
CAPTION:
Top and Front Page: Deputy Prime Minister/Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul talking to the press today, Jan. 29, 2025. Photos: Thai Rath
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