The government plans to begin public hearings on its 350-billion-baht water management and flood prevention projects next month to comply with an Administrative Court order.
It also expects to finish drafting contracts for the projects within three months.
The Administrative Court last week ruled that the water projects are likely to cause environmental impacts and legally require public hearings and impact studies before they can be implemented.
Deputy Prime Minister Pongthep Thepkanchana, who heads a committee scrutinising the court ruling, said the hearings would begin next month.
Draft contracts for the projects' implementation will also be completed within three months, as the government has a six-month deadline to sign them with four groups of contractors that won the bidding for the project's nine modules, he said. The draft contracts would include a condition that the projects could be cancelled if they did not pass the assessments, he said.
Mr Pongthep said he was still waiting for opinions from organisations involved in the water scheme before deciding whether to appeal.
Meanwhile, a Pheu Thai Party source yesterday said several Pheu Thai MPs have demanded the party take over the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry from the Chart Thai Party.
Ministry executives had failed to follow the government's policy on water management, the source said. The take-over would also enable the government to better manage the rice-pledging scheme, the source added.
"If the ministry is still under the supervision of Chart Thai, it will be impossible for the government solve flood problems," the source quoted Deputy Prime Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi as saying during a party meeting yesterday.
Pheu Thai MP Apiwan Wiriyachai said his flood prevention project in Nonthaburi had been scrapped because the ministry diverted the budget to implement a project in Suphan Buri _ Chart Thai Party's political stronghold.