Activists have submitted a letter supported by 10,800 signatures asking Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to bring a lawsuit against members of former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra's government over the 510 billion baht in damages caused to the state by her government's rice-pledging scheme.
Groups of activists, including the Thai Spring group, submitted their open letter at a public complaints centre near Government House on Thursday morning, calling for legal action. They based their damages estimate on a study made by the Finance Ministry.
Leading the activists, Kaewsun Atibhodhi, a law lecturer from Thammasat University, said the loss had already been incurred and public prosecutors and the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) should stop arguing about whether there had been corruption or not in the rice scheme.
Gen Sakol Chuentrakul, adviser to the prime minister, received their letter.
The NACC is pushing for the retroactive removal of Ms Yingluck as former prime minister, and for criminal charges to be brought against her. It found she had failed in her duty to review the loss-ridden rice-pledging scheme and stop the corruption as ex-officio chair of the National Rice Policy Committee.
Her government bought rice at prices much higher than the market rate and then could not sell it because Thai rice was overpriced, and exports slumped. There have been complaints and findings of corruption at every stage of the rice scheme's implementation.
Authorities earlier said civil lawsuit scould be filed against former ministers in the Yingluck government involved in the rice scheme.