No water cuts today

KUWAIT: The Ministry of Electricity and Water’s (MEW) Assistant Undersecretary for Water Operation and Maintenance Khalifa Mohammed Al-Fraij denied social media warnings that water supplies will be disconnected today. Fraij explained that the plan circulated on social media only involves one of the new projects in Mutlaa (northern region) to connect new lines to the grid, adding that no disconnection for water supplies will be involved at any part of the country.

No exemptions

The Ministry of Interior’s (MoI) relations and security media department’s manager Brig Adel Ahmed Al-Hashash stressed that the penalty of impounding vehicles parked in no-parking zones or on pavements and for using mobile phones while driving and not wearing seatbelts will remain active. He said the law has been officially activated. “We will study the pros and cons of activating the law in the coming days to avoid its negative effects,” he explained, strongly denying that the law exempts any category of motorists.

Hashash noted that the campaign had started on Sunday and would remain in force, subjecting violators to two months of vehicle impoundment and withdrawal of license plates for the first offence. He added that if the violation is repeated, violators will be sent to the traffic court for relevant penalties. In addition, Hashash explained that standard fines for the violation are KD 15 plus KD 10 as towing charges and KD 1 per day as impoundment charges.

Hashash denied that traffic police were abusing their powers and the law over dealing with universities, government bodies or local markets, as each facility had enough parking spaces. “Some drivers just won’t walk a few more steps for no more than two minutes,” he concluded.

Recruitment offices

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry Urged domestic helper recruitment offices to announce the recruitment fares for workers they provide. “Otherwise, we will make you do so,” the ministry warned, urging the offices to provide a price list within 14 days at the commercial control department in Siddiq to avoid legal action.

Cleaning contracts

Well-informed municipality sources said current cleaning contracts are due to expire on Nov 24 and that the municipality will extend them for a maximum of 12 months and a further six months. The sources said the total number of cleaning contracts in effect are 17, and a special committee to qualify applying companies will subject all of them for studies to find any shortcomings and avoid them in future contracts. The sources added that the new cities of Sabah Al-Ahmad, West Hadiya, Jaber Al-Ahmed, New Khairan, New Abu Halifa, New Mesayel, East Sulaibikhat and New Naseem will be added to the new contracts.

Bachelors

Kuwait Municipality’s public relations department announced that Farwaniya inspection teams recently toured block 10 in Khaitan to examine dilapidated buildings. Farwaniya Municipality Manager Saeed Al-Azmi stressed that the tours were made on direct instructions from Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs and Minister of State for Municipal Affairs Mohammed Al-Jabri in a bid to resolve the problems the block’s residents have been facing. Azmi said the team discussed residents’ grievances, with some of them noting that the block has 600 buildings and most of them are derelict, cannot be expanded, lack enough parking spaces and many of them are rented to “bachelors”. Azmi added that a full report will be submitted to Jabri about the block and promised legal actions would be taken to evict bachelors from the block.