BD100,000 for renovation

NON-Governmental Organisations will recommend names of underprivileged families to the Manama Municipal Council for maintenance work in their dilapidated houses.The Manama Council has decided to invest the unused budget of BD100,000 to rehabilitate these homes, said Jassim Redha, the Manama Council Secretary.The Ministry of Municipalities Affairs and Agriculture allocated a budget of BD500,000 and distributed this among the five municipal councils equally to run its projects.The Manama Council has decided to use this pending budget to conduct repairs to kitchens, toilets, staircase and do other minor renovation works, he said.“We have seen a lot of people living in miserable condition due to the lack of any maintenance work, therefore, this budget will be used to complete these jobs. We are cooperating with the charity funds in the Manama areas to receive applications from people, investigate the cases and report to the council for final approval.”Redha said: “After the cases have been finalised, we will forward it to a contractor to give us a quotation. Following this we will issue tenders for the maintenance works. This procedure will emphasise the relation between the council and the civil societies and charity funds – we call it integration of NGOs with the government.”“We hope in future this programme will include expatriate families also. They are part of our society and this budget comes from every individual’s municipal taxes,” he added.