Wednesday, Oct 29, 2008
Gulf News
Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi Municipality does not have any plan to introduce 'one family in one villa' rule, a senior official told Gulf News on Tuesday.
"But the campaign against illegal partitioning and overcrowded villas will continue," said Salem Al Maamari, Executive Director of Municipal Services at Abu Dhabi Municipality. He clarified that ongoing campaign against illegal partitioning does not insist that only one family should stay in one villa.
"We are in the primary stage of regulating the accommodations in villas and trying to implement the existing laws and rules in this regard". The campaign is against unauthorised partitioning and construction or extension in villas, without the permission from the municipality," said Al Maamari. "And we take strict action against large number of people in a room or villa which creates social and health problems."
Another senior official said the campaign now targets farms also because a lot of farms were found with illegal constructions and renting their premises for bachelor accommodations. "Large number of labourers was found illegally living in farms," said Engineer Omar Mohammad Al Hashemi, Division Manager, Municipal Offices at Abu Dhabi Municipality. He said day to day inspections are in progress to detect the violations in villas.
"Our inspectors at five municipal centres at Al Jafrana, Al Bateen, Al Wathba, Al Shahama and Al Mussaffah are coordinating the campaign," said Al Hashemi. He said the municpality does not hastily take action but gives enough time to the landlords to fix the violations.
"When inspectors finds the violations, we issue warning to the landlords to legalise the unauthorised construction or remove (demolish) it. If our warnings do not work, the matter is referred to Municipal courts," explained Al Hashemi.
Abu Dhabi Municipality had earlier said it was considering increasing the penalty for illegal partitioning to Dh500,000 on real estate agents to halt the practice.
Gulf News 2008. All rights reserved.
