ShareKUWAIT: Minister of State for Housing Affairs and Minister of State for Utilities Affairs Yasser Abul inspected the Abu Hlaifa and Wafra residential expansion projects yesterday. Abul was escorted by the Director of the Public Authority for Housing Welfare (PAHW) Bader Al-Waqian and his deputy for implementation affairs Ali Al-Hubail. During the tour, Abul inspected both projects' infrastructure and was briefed about the work progress on both sites. Waqian said that PAHW has already handed over the lands in both projects to citizens, and that building licenses have been issued according to schedule.
Waqian explained that Abu Hlaifa's project includes 171 housing units, a power plant, seven power transformers, a mosque and a number of stores. He added that the Wafra project includes 2,426 housing units, 10 power transformation units in addition to several public facilities such as a kindergarten, a middle school, a high school, a polyclinic, a mosque, a park, a government complex, a shopping mall, a cooking gas cylinders' branch, a police station, a social office, a community development building, an ambulance center and stores.
Labor demands
Board member of the Ministry of Electricity and Water's (MEW) labor union Khaled Al-Tahous expressed discontent with what he described as MEW officials' ambiguity in dealing with the issue of turning some of the ministry's sectors into separate establishments without consulting with concerned employees syndicates' in the process. He added that the syndicate had asked for the project's draft long ago without any response so far.
Tahous, who is also a member of the executive board of the union of government employees' syndicates, further stressed that he holds Minister of Oil and Minister of Electricity and Water Essa Al-Marzouq responsible in case any of the employees' rights were harmed, adding that withholding the project's draft was completely rejected, and that employees will line up to face any decisions against their interests. Tahous said that the syndicate had met with Undersecretary Mohammed Boshehri to discuss employees' demands, while this project was discussed as a priority. "We demanded a copy of the project's draft to study it, but failure to meet our demands calls for suspicions," he underlined.
Oil pipelines
MP Khalil Al-Saleh filed an inquiry asking Minister of Oil and Minister of Electricity and Water Essa Al-Marzouq about the controversial oil pipelines tender, reports about the performance of a contractor responsible for collection center number 31, and the reasons and impact of delaying a refinery project.
Dangerous phenomenon
Commenting on recent newspaper report claiming that some training centers in Kuwait grant arbitration certificates within 24 hours, Deputy Director of the Arbitration Center of Kuwait Lawyers Association lawyer Ahmed Al-Enezi said that this issue is a dangerous phenomenon, and stressed the importance that such certificates should only be given by accredited centers and institutions. Enezi added that Kuwait Lawyers Association had long ago established the Kuwait Institute for Judicial and Legal Studies with the aim of spreading legal awareness. He also urged fellow lawyers to consolidate and face such negative phenomena.
By Meshaal Al-Enezi
