“Suphanat” blasts “Thang Rath” app system as fail! Lacks geotagging and photo attachments, delaying flood relief payouts

Today (19 October 2026) at 9:40 AM at the Parliament, Mr. Suphanat Minchaiynunt, Member of Parliament for Bangkok from the People's Party, pointed out issues regarding the flood relief compensation request system. He stated that one of the reasons behind the delay in citizens receiving compensation money stems from the system design of the “Thang Rath” application, which fails to meet practical needs and does not connect front-line officers or the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) with central agencies. The app lacks channels for attaching photos and crucial supporting documents. As a result, after two weeks pass, officers still have to request additional documents, which takes flood victims time to submit. Furthermore, there are image clarity issues when submitted via LINE OA. Consequently, citizens who travel to submit complete physical documents all at once at district offices may receive their payout faster than those who applied through the Thang Rath app two weeks ago, causing people to crowd district offices.

In addition, the Thang Rath app lacks a screening system to distinguish whether applicants are homeowners or residents. When duplicate applications occur, officers waste time filtering them. It also lacks a GPS location pin system, unlike the BMA's Claim.bangkok website. Without geotagging, officers cannot immediately confirm whether an area has been flooded or surrounded by floodwaters for more than seven days, thus prolonging the review process. Meanwhile, even though the Thang Rath app uses logins via THAID, government house registration data fails to specify building types—whether single-detached houses, condominiums, dormitories, flats, or government quarters. This forces officers to waste entire days filtering out residents of government quarters, as they are ineligible for relief compensation. Mr. Suphanat noted that submitting requests through government channels separately from BMA, without backend integration or co-working systems, has become a major obstacle causing severe delays in officer processing.

Regarding the government's request for additional relief funds, Mr. Suphanat pointed out that bringing the matter to the Cabinet for additional budget approval clearly indicates that previous allocations have been completely exhausted and proved insufficient. This is evident from a large number of citizens who remain left behind without relief payouts from October 16, 2026, up to today. If this budget proposal is not brought into consideration and approved at tomorrow's Cabinet meeting (October 20, 2026), affected citizens will fail to receive compensation this week, even though Bangkok residents have suffered from flood impacts for three weeks and continue to await government aid. Currently, there are hundreds of thousands of claims approved by local administrative organizations and the BMA. If budget funds had been approved and prepared in advance, an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 million baht could have been directly transferred to citizens within the past 3 to 5 days. However, due to the lack of advance budget approval, assistance payments cannot be disbursed to the public immediately.

Photo : Weeraphat Ratsameerueangrong