BY YASIN ABU TAQIU
DOHA: Utility distributor Kahramaa said yesterday that its officials know of the mushrooming illegally partitioned homes but cannot discontinue electricity and water supplies to such a home unless the municipality of the area concerned asks it to specifically do that.
“Our hands are tied. The law requires that the municipality of the area concerned ask us to disconnect utility supplies to an illegally partitioned villa or apartment. On our own, we can’t act,” said a senior Kahramaa official.
He, along with a senior official of the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning, attended the proceedings of the Central Municipal Council (CMC) yesterday which raised the issue of illegally partitioned homes.
CMC members said the dangerous trend was a result of toothless laws and some greedy expatriate middlemen were taking undue advantage of shortage of affordable housing.
Following a debate, the Central Municipal Council (CMC) asked the civic ministry to increase the inspection of partitioned villas and apartments and suggested that as soon as a violation is noticed utility distributor Kahramaa should be asked to disconnect the supply of water and electricity to such a home.
But the Kahramaa official put the ball in the court of the municipal ministry saying that its officials always notices such violations but the law required them to disconnect electricity and water supplies to a shelter after being notified by the municipality of the area.
Jassim Al Malki, Deputy Chairman of the Council, said that most of the villa partitioning was being done by expatriates who rented the premises and instead of staying there, they partitioned them and rented them out to several families.
“It’s now common to find a house designated for one family being shared by about five families through partitions,” he said. “This puts a lot of pressure on utility services like water electricity and sewage as they are not enough for the several families.”
Council member Hamad Al Mansouri blamed the persistent problem of home partitioning to poor urban planning, saying that officials were keen to allocate more residential places to citizens who are less than 15 percent of the population and the expatriates who are every day increasing in the country were left to share a few congested areas.
Mohammed Al Hajri, another council member, called upon authorities to link the issuance and renewal of residency permits (RPs) to a proof of Kahramaa number for every family.
“If five families turn up at the immigration to renew their residents and all don’t pay utility services in their names but claim the house they are staying in is owned by a Qatari or someone else, do not renew their visas.”
A representative from the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning told the council that the Municipality was having an ongoing campaign aimed by identifying illegally partitioned home whether among villas or apartments and was levying a fine. He said that not all partitioning was illegal but if there was to be any, it has to be approved and permitted by the municipality according to rules and after studying that the villa has the capacity and enough utility services to accommodate the number of families that will stay there.
The council recommended to both the Ministry of Municipality and Kahramaa to do more awareness among the communities about the dangers and consequences of illegally partitioning homes.
The proposal was earlier tabled by CMC member, Mohamed bin Hamod Al Shafi.
The Council also discussed a proposal to have all citizens working for the government and having a secondary school certificate to be given government housing. The topic was tabled by Mohammed bin Hamoud Al Shafi council representative of New Al Rayyan, who expressed concerns of the hardships young Qatari families are facing with having to pay rents. He said that rent was increasing at a fast speed every year and that it was taking up to half of the salaries of some Qatari families.
A recommendation for this proposed housing had been sent to the Ministry of Finance and the council got no response, yesterday council members raised concerns that the earlier recommendation was sent to the wrong department, and recommended that it should be sent to the Ministry of Municipality and Urban planning which should forward it to the cabinet.
The Peninsula
