Prayut aide dares Pheu Thai to scrap state welfare cards for the poor
Deputy government spokeswoman Tipanan Sirichana on Thursday challenged the Pheu Thai Party to end the so-called poor people’s card project if it won the May 14 election.
Tipanan, one of the close aides of caretaker Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha, issued the challenge after Pheu Thai patriarch, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, launched veiled attacks on the Prayut’s state welfare project.
In an online talk programme on Club House held by Care Facebook page on March 7, Thaksin said if Pheu Thai formed the next government, the poor would ignore the state welfare card project of Prayut.
He said a Pheu Thai government would launch a soft power project for households and low-income people would earn more than the 1,000 baht they would receive through the state welfare card.
On Tuesday, Thaksin reiterated during the Club House programme that a Pheu Thai government would launch projects to help the poor have income and the projects would not be cash handouts like the state welfare project.
“I would like to ask Pheu Thai to make it clear whether it would end the state welfare card project,” Tipanan said.
The spokeswoman added that the House dissolution would not affect the project.
She said low-income people, who have successfully identified themselves by March 26, would start receiving money through their welfare card from April 1.
She said 14,596,820 people had applied for the welfare card but 1.122 million applicants were rejected.
Tipanan said the Prayut government had implemented several projects apart from the state welfare card project to create jobs and increase the income of the people.
She expressed confidence that voters would give Prayut the mandate to continue the projects in the next government. Prayut is tipped to run for another tenure as prime minister candidate of the United Thai Nation Party.
