ShareKUWAIT: The Interior Ministry and the central agency for stateless people or bedoon agreed yesterday to start issuing health cards to bedoons who don't have security cards and carry fake passports from a third country, MP Mohammad Hayef said. Hayef said that the authorities agreed the new health card can be used by bedoons for a variety of issues like the security card which bedoons use as an official Identification Card.
Hayef was speaking after a meeting with the National Assembly Human Rights Committee which was attended by representatives for the Interior Ministry and the central agency for bedoons. He said that the committee accepted the health card as long as it can be used by bedoons to facilitate their affairs. The lawmaker said that officials pledged that bedoons will be able to use the new health card to get the services of health, education, driving licenses, obtain birth and death certificates and marriage contracts as well.
Hayef said that the officials pledged that the new health card will be accepted by all government departments in the same way as the security cards. The officials also vowed to inform private sector firms and certain government departments to accept the health cards for employment, the lawmaker said.
Interior Ministry officials said they will start issuing the health cards at the end of the month after the proposal is approved by the Interior Minister. Hayef however, insisted that these are temporary and partial solutions intended to help a section of bedoons who do not carry the security cards and have fake passports at the same time. He insisted that the best solution for them is a permanent and fundamental solution.
In another development, MP Thamer Al-Suwait said yesterday he will oppose government moves reportedly to dissolve the Municipal Council and replace it with advisory governorate councils. The lawmaker insisted that the Municipal Council plays a very important role in the development of the country and it cannot be scrapped and its authorities distributed to other bodies.
He stressed that the Municipal Council is one of the fundamental components of democracy and the constitution, adding that lawmakers will not accept scrapping it or reducing its powers. MP Mubarak Al-Hajraf yesterday sent questions to the ministers of social affairs and labor and state minister for cabinet affairs protesting against the appointment of an expatriate journalist at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor. The lawmaker said that hundreds of Kuwaitis can take up the job and should have been given to a citizen. He also inquired how the civil service commission has approved the appointment.
By B Izzak
