Upset over government delay in providing services
Karbabad resident are planning their fourth protest against government delay in providing various services.
"One individual controls huge lands in the area, while the residents are deprived of amenities. There is acute shortage of land for other utilities as well," area councillor Hameed Ali Mansour Al Basri told the Tribune yesterday.
As a last-minute solution to their demands, the Minister for Municipalities Affairs and Agriculture, Mansour Hassan Bin Rajab, yesterday gave a letter of intent for the construction of a jetty for small and fishing boats and earmarked an area for the construction of dhows, he said.
"But the letter is far away from what I had told them. It looks like a last-minute rush job done so the minister could sign it and get it off his responsibility," Al Basri. "The letter mentions that according to a meeting Al Basri and council chairman Majeed Millad Al Jazeeri had with Bin Rajab over the allocation of land for a harbour and a site for boats project, a location had been identified in the north of the Bahrain Fort, where no reclamation is permitted.
The letter will be given to a group of residents to decide whether they want to go ahead with the protest, Al Basri said.
"It is a protected area according to Unesco and very close to the fort. In this area one individual owns 11 million square metres of land. According to municipal rules, the government has the right to own 20 per cent of that land to develop infrastructure such as roads and gardens. It could also buy the land from the owner. The area could be used for housing and other projects. "Each plot admeasuring 60x60 square feet could be utilised for many projects," he said.
© Bahrain Tribune 2008
