Councilor laments failure to fix malfunctioned landlines

KUWAIT: The Municipal Council’s former deputy chairman Meshaal Al-Juwaisri yesterday criticized Minister of State for Services and Housing Affairs Jenan Bushehri because of her alleged failure to fix around 5,100 landlines that malfunctioned due to the recent heavy rain in Salwa, Salmiya and Maidan Hawally. Juwaisri urged His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah to interfere and get the problem solved, especially “since minister Bushehri does not have a solution and does not know the reason behind the disconnected lines,” as he put it. Juwaisri explained that the disconnected landlines include over 1,300 in Salwa, 2,600 in Maidan Hawally and 1,200 in Salmiya, some of which were repaired but broke down again.

Automated inquiry

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MOCI) yesterday announced adding automated inquiry about ration cards as a new service on the ministry’s website www.moci.gov.kw. A statement issued by the ministry explained the service includes inquiring about the card’s validity, status, number of individuals registered on it, their monthly rations, previously provided goods, products’ prices and types. The ministry added that the cardholder can log on by registering their phone number at any MOCI centers, then setting a password to use to follow up the status of their subsidized goods’ transactions. KUWAIT: Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s Director Yousif Al-Fauzan stressed the new terminal four (T4) at Kuwait International Airport is allocated only for Kuwait Airways flights and that there is no intention or plans to house any other airlines in this terminal. Fauzan added that new stores will be opened in the new terminal for passengers by the beginning of the new year. He added that both the civil aviation directorate and KAC aspire to make the new terminal service around 6 million passengers annually, noting that the total number of flights in T4 jumped to 90 since it was inaugurated in August.

Automated service

Following the success achieved by the project in nine state departments, the Civil Service Commission’s (CSC) assistant undersecretary for information technology affairs Sabeeka Al-Weqayyan said the CSC is about to contact government bodies that have still not installed automated service devices. Weqayyan added the CSC will distribute the new devices at Kuwait Airport and

large commercial complexes.

5 percent charge

Kuwait Farmers Federation Chairman Abdullah AlDammak announced that on behalf of Kuwaiti farmers, it submitted a number of demands to Chairman of Industrial Bank of Kuwait (IBK) Mosab Salem Al-Nisf requesting the cancellation of the 5 percent charge for farmers who delay paying off their dues. “He welcomed us and promised to cancel the extra charge, noting that he was fully aware of the damage incurred on farmers as a result of the recent heavy rain,” explaining affected farmers should file individual requests to defer the 5 percent delay charge for a year.

Speaking to reporters after meeting Nisf, Dammak expressed hope that IBK’s board of directors fully understand farmers’ problems and help them overcome them in order to support Kuwaiti farmers face the increasing prices of farming materials as well as rising wages. He added that demands made to IBK included extending farmers’ loan payment to 20 years, exempting them from delay fines, reducing administrative fees, dropping the payment of this year’s installments because of the rain, turning conventional agricultural loans to Islamic ones, fixing the total loan interest rate at 2 percent, reconsidering the current annual insurance which does not cover possible losses and considering rescheduling loans.