Increasing Kuwaiti private sector workers on panel's agenda

KUWAIT: A local court yesterday adjourned hearing a case filed by a lawyer who demanded blocking Twitter in Kuwait, and decided to set a later hearing. A local lawyer had filed a case demanding closing access to Twitter in Kuwait in order to "protect the Kuwaiti society from manipulation and rumors, especially in view of the many fake Twitter accounts in use." The lawyer also demanded questioning the Minister of Information, his undersecretary and the chairman of the Communication and Information Technology Regulatory Authority (CITRA) for their alleged responsibility over the government's "weak control over fake accounts."

Parliament's agenda
Following discussing the grilling motions on its agenda, today's parliamentary session is scheduled to witness forming temporary committees including the human resources panel, said informed parliamentary sources, noting that the committee will be formed again under the leadership of MP Khalil Al-Saleh to resume its unfinished work, namely appointing citizens in the private sector and higher rates of replacing expats with citizens. The sources added that the government initially agreed to ask foreign companies to hire Kuwaitis. "However, they will not be mandated to hire 100 percent Kuwaiti staff," they said.

Electricity and water authority
The Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) is scheduled to offer a practice to hire an international consultant to study a draft bill on establishing the Public Authority for Electricity and Water. Notably, the finance ministry had approved offering the practice for six months with a total cost of KD 350,000 to be deducted from the 2019-2020 budget. The aim of this practice is to accelerate the foundation of an organization that will help cut the cost of producing electricity and water.

Bedoons' expired IDs
Ministry of Health (MoH) announced a grace period for bedoons with expired security IDs until Jan 2020 to renew their IDs and resume getting free healthcare. They will still get these services for free during the grace period.

By A Saleh