Govt urged to breathe new life into old, deserted villages

By Ayman Adly/Staff Reporter

The old, deserted villages should be revived by assigning necessary funds and the original inhabitants or their descendants attracted to come back and reside at these locations, the Central Municipal Council (CMC) suggested yesterday.   

CMC member Dr Mohamed al-Mislimani raised the issue at the bi-weekly regular session. He suggested that the country should allocate a special budget to bring life back to deserted areas such as Al-Gharyah, Al-Meshrib, Zekrit and Umm Swayah and other villages scattered at various locations in the outskirts of the country.

“The original inhabitants of these places or their offspring should be encouraged to go and invest there by the government. They should be given plots of lands and financial assistance to build houses there. However, they may not be able to reside there permanently but use it for recreation purposes or spend weekends there.

“Every person who belongs to any of these deserted villages wishes and yearns to go back there. So, we should encourage investment there and reviving our heritage and culture there. It should not be only about the monuments and conservation of historical buildings there but giving the places life with inhabitants,” said CMC member Mohamed bin Zafir al-Hajiri.

Eventually, CMC chairman Saud al-Hinzab referred the issue to the services and utility committee for more study and to issue the necessary recommendations.

In the meantime, CMC members hailed the Public Works Authority’s (Ashghal) response to its scheduled plans to develop Rawdat Rashid road. The response came in the wake of al-Hajiri’s inquiries about the status of the road works there because many fatal accidents took place and a number of young people were injured or killed due to the bad condition of the road.    

Ashghal said that the project was divided into five stages and the first stage will be commenced by the beginning of next month. One tender for a part of the project has already been offered and the rest will be offered in first half of 2015. The first phase will cover a stretch of 8.5km, which connects Rawdat Rashid with Salwa Expressway.

The tenders for the second phase of 10.4km from Rawdat Rashid towards Dukhan Road are to be submitted on November 18. The tender for the third phase of 14.5km will be offered on January 7, next year. The tender for the fourth phase will be offered on March 4 next year and that for the fifth and final phase on April 15, 2015.

The council also issued various recommendations regarding the transfer of internal streets’ maintenance to the designated municipalities from Ashghal. It recommended that the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning (MMUP) study the possibility of establishing offices of Ashghal at such municipalities to co-ordinate the required maintenance works.

Accordingly, the staff working there should be considered as working for Ashghal and a mechanism should be devised to handle the submitted requests for maintenance by CMC members or residents.

Further, the council discussed the penalties that should be imposed on the companies delaying the delivery of Ashghal projects’ they have undertaken. It was pointed out that the council should be aware of the draft law to be issued in this regard.

Regarding emergency services at Hamad General Hospital, the council demanded that the number of nurses and doctors be increased to ease the waiting time. Also, CMC members suggested that the Public Prosecution study the possibility of opening an office at the Emergency Department to speed up the legal procedures for burying those who die in accidents.