Municipality crackdown on illegal practices

SEVEN workshops have been shut down by Manama Municipality in Naim for violating municipal regulations. The workshops, which repaired air-conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, motorbikes and other motor products, had been illegally using the footpath outside their shops for carrying out their work, the chairman of Manama Municipal Council, Murtada Bader, said.“Municipal inspectors had warned them on several occasions, asking them not to occupy the footpaths but the warnings were not heeded. The municipality has therefore closed the shops for a month and given them notice to regularise their practice,” he said.“The municipality had told the shopowners that if they were unable to run their businesses properly without occupying the area outside their shops, they must seek permission and pay fees to the municipality for using it,” Bader said.However, workers at a motorbike workshop which had been closed for a month were caught operating outside the shuttered shop by Manama municipal councillor Sadiq Rahma yesterday. He informed the Manama Municipality director general, Abdulkarim Hassan. The latter has since issued orders to the inspectors to visit the seven workshops daily to ensure they do not operate illegally during their one-month closure period. Bader said during the last week Manama Municipality inspectors and public security had also confiscated goods from a number of street vendors on Shaikh Abdullah Road. “Most of them are free-visa workers,” he said.