DOHA: Public representative body, the Central Municipal Council (CMC), has severely criticised the government for allotting undeveloped plots of land to a large number of fellow Qataris for housing in Al Wakrah.
The plots, allotted to some 5,000 Qataris recently, have no basic infrastructure, says Saud Al Hanzab (pictured), chairman of the CMC.
He said what has infuriated the beneficiaries is a recent announcement by the Urban Planning Department of the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning that a contract had been awarded to the Public Works Authority (Ashghal) to develop basic infrastructure for the above plots over three years.
The CMC had recommended that the plots be allotted so that beneficiaries were able to start building houses on these plots within a year, said Al Hanzab.
According to him, this means that the beneficiaries will now have to wait for three years to start building their houses.
Then, they must wait for another three years to see their houses ready so they could move in, said the CMC chairman.
“So in all it would take six years for a beneficiary to move into his own house.” Al Hanzab said that many beneficiaries had been waiting for land allotment since 2005.
“For them, the wait to see their own houses ready is going to be 15 years. It’s a lifetime. Are people going to wait for their entire lives to have their own houses?” said Al Hanzab.
He said such a long wait was sure to create rifts and tensions in the families of beneficiaries. Media reports earlier suggested that the plots allotted to the beneficiaries each measured 1,000sqm.
“The beneficiaries are shocked and frustrated by the announcement of the civic ministry about inking a deal with Ashghal to develop the basic infrastructure over three years.”
Al Hanzab said he urges the authorities concerned to complete developing the plots as soon as possible. “If not, what’s the point in making such allotments?”
There are a number of beneficiaries who don’t like the location of the plots because they are too far away, Al Sharq reported the CMC chairman as saying. The Peninsula
