30 vice dens to be razed

By MOHAMMED AL A'ALI
THIRTY abandoned houses used as vice dens in the Capital Governorate will be knocked down soon, says Manama Municipal Council.
The council is planning to instruct the Manama Municipality to find out who owns the houses, before knocking them down.
If the owners are found to be needy, then the municipality will do the work for them.
But if they are not, then the municipality will send them the bill, said council financial, administrative and legislative committee chairman Majeed Millad Al Jazeeri.
"We have been receiving a lot of complaints about the activities in these houses," he said.
"There are sex practises being witnessed by people in the neighbourhoods on a regular basis, without anything being done to stop it.
"Those houses will be soon gone and the parasites, whether men or women, going there, will have no place to practise their immorality in.
Mr Al Jazeeri said that he had been warning about the dangers of those houses for a long time.
"I have been calling for the demolition of 14 houses in my constituency (old Manama and Ras Ruman), but it falls on deaf years," he said.
"Now everything will be changed and I am getting back-up from the municipality director-general Abdulkarim Hassan, who is keen on cleaning our neighbourhoods.
"When the issue was referred officially to my committee I was very happy and councillors have started pouring in requests to knock down similar houses in their constituencies.
"I received a request from technical affairs committee chairman Sadiq Rahma to knock down six houses, his vice-chairman Jaffar Al Qaidoom to knock down four houses and Sayed Jameel Khadim to knock down six houses.
"I hope that we get more, because ridding people from those sick places, means a better place to live in.
"We don't want our children to get affected by this going around them, because it is our responsibility to ensure that surroundings are safe for everyone."