Rawai vendors ordered to leave

RAWAI: Roadside vendors along Rawai Beach, where the issue of illegal vendors has been a persistent irritant for years, have been given eviction notices and have until July 3 to leave. On that date, officers of Rawai Tambon Administration Organization and the Muang District Office will check whether they have moved. If they have not, they will be forcibly removed, Wanchai Wattanasiri, Chief of the Phuket Provincial Highways Office, told a press conference at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday . The evictions are part of an ongoing drive to “beautify” roadsides around Phuket. Already, almost all of the 39 makeshift restaurants along Thepkrasattri Rd in Phuket City, near Rajabhat University Phuket, have disappeared after receiving notices to quit by June 11. K. Wanchai said that the maximum penalty for people selling products along public sidewalks is a 2,000 baht fine, a month in jail, or both. Those who build on sidewalks are subject to stiffer penalties: up to three years in jail, or a fine of up to 60,000 baht, or both, he said. He added that other areas slated for clean-ups in the near future include Sakdidet Rd, Thepkrasattri Rd around the Heroines’ Monument and sections of Chao Fa East Rd.