One of the first projects that the

One of the first projects that the NCPO launched in the capital and in other big cities
immediately after it seized power was to address issues of order affecting urban life. Several
plans launched just over a month after the coup continued until recently. The junta promised
to achieve in a fast and effective way goals that other elected governments would take years to
complete. Plans included reorganizing and regulating motorcycle taxis, vans, taxi, street
vendors, unskilled foreign workers, fixed lottery-ticket prices. Fast and effective measures
implemented by the military included forcing vans and thousands of street vendors from the
streets, arresting and repatriating foreign workers, fining small retailers of lottery tickets.2 The
negative effects appeared to fall on the urban poor trying to make ends meet rather than on
organized offenders, which the junta had claimed that it was eradicating.