New push to solve council office row

By MOHAMMED AL A'LI
COUNCILLORS are to meet today over an apparent split over calls to move out of their cramped headquarters. Manama Municipal chairman Majeed Millad Al Jazeeri says he is backing the push and that colleagues who believed otherwise had misunderstood him.
He says a move would take at least a year to be complete, thus his decision to install partitions, to create temporary offices for councillors.
The seven councillors want to move to other premises because four of them are stuck in one office, while three are without desks, more than a month after being elected.
Council technical committee chairman Al Wefaq's Abdulmajeed Al Sebea'a is already refusing to use the council headquarters, saying there is no room for him.
He is operating out of his original office as an engineer in a major engineering consulting firm and will soon rent his own office for council work.
Mr Al Sebea'a is attending general-secretariat, council and committee meetings at the council headquarters, and then going back to his original workplace.
The chairman and his secretary and the secretary-general, have their own separate offices in the council premises.
There are two offices for clerks and one office with four tables, divided amongst the seven remaining councillors.
The council and the Municipalities and Agriculture Affairs Ministry are in one premises and the Manama Municipality is in a building adjacent to it.
Mr Al Jazeeri says that the decision to stay was that of former council chairman Murthada Bader. "The problem is councillors didn't listen to my plans on the move and they think that I am pushing for a stay," he said.
He is planning to sit with the seven councillors today to explain his plans for the move and clarify the misunderstanding that he was against it.
Mr Al Jazeeri said he had been unable to have long meetings with councillors since going to Haj last month and then being taken into hospital two days after coming back, in addition to the death of his brother last week. He said he had been going to the council to clear pending requests, but had been unable to sit with other councillors, to discuss any major issue.
Mr Al Sebea'a said that the move would take two months at most, since the budget had already been promised by the ministry. He said that the idea of partitioning the hall was bad.
"There are offices for council employees already set up in the meeting hall, which is also being used by the ministry and municipality for their meetings," said Mr Al Sebea'a.
"It is very noisy, since it has two doors and people pass through it all the time.
"There is no control over who enters that hall and to take a decision on any issue, someone needs quiet and not disruption."
Mr Al Sebea'a believes that it would be unnecessary to hire new drivers or other employees if the council moved to other premises, since messages could be sent through the government electronic system.
"Other councils, which are far away from the area's municipality, don't face difficulties getting their mail delivered every day. I don't think we would face any trouble doing so, since both are in the same governorate," said Mr Sebea'a."
He said that councillors haven't sat with Mr Al Jazeeri since the death of his brother, but would do so during the week.
"It is still unclear what he wants to do, but six out of seven, who were present during our meeting last week want to move and the chairman knows that, but we are yet to listen to him."
Councillors Sadiq Rahma and Khamees Al Rumaihi are the other two with no desks.

Vigilantes slammed

By BEGENA GEORGE
VIGILANTES threatening to drive out 100 expatriate workers due to be housed in Segaiya were condemned yesterday by human rights activists and social workers.
Violence is likely as the residents have a history of driving out groups of expatriate workers housed in the area, who they accused of immoral and disruptive behaviour, says a councillor.
The residents are furious that a Bahraini businessman has rented two neighbouring homes, which he is currently renovating, to house 100 workers.
Manama Municipal Council has been trying to negotiate a compromise between the property owner, the businessman who has rented the buildings and the residents.
But the residents are adamant that they will drive out the men out if they move into the houses.
Residents should remember that these expatriate workers are the bloodline of the country's economy, said Bahrain Human Rights Society (BHRS) assistant general secretary Abdulla Al Deerazi.
"These residents who are threatening to drive away the workers need to realise for a moment that they are our kingdom builders," he said.
"These innocent men, who have no choice whatsoever over where they live, should not be punished for an act that apparently these residents think they might do.
"The residents should not be allowed to take the law into their own hands and it is the government who should look into this.
"The contractor, building owner and residents must reach a mutual agreement, instead of bullying the workers.
"The issue needs to be solved before it gets worse or out of control."
Migrant Workers Protection Society action committee head Marietta Dias said people must not be allowed to take the law into their own hands.
"If the government allows these workers to stay there, they can and it is not for these residents to drive them out," said Mrs Dias.
She said it was wrong for residents to assume that the workers would cause disturbances, or commit immoral acts, even before they have moved in.
"Unless these workers actually do something to offend to them, they must not be blamed," she said.
"If one among these 100 workers does something unacceptable, then they have cause to complain.
"Also, why should the workers suffer for a decision taken by their boss on where they should stay - like they have a choice?"
Ms Dias said it was a dangerous trend if communities were allowed to bar others from moving into their areas.
"Today they don't want a bunch of labourers staying in their neighbourhood and tomorrow they won't want anyone from a particular community to stay there," she said.
"The decision should be left to the government, not ordinary citizens."
Residents in the same area have driven out other expatriate workers by threatening to set fire to their accommodation.
They have a history of violent clashes with expatriate workers housed in the area, area councillor and council technical committee chairman Majeed Al Sebea'a had told the GDN earlier.
Thirty family heads out of 400 people had submitted a petition to the council, threatening to staging demonstrations soon.
The businessman renting the two houses is former Shura Council member Ibrahim Nonoo, who told the GDN earlier he did not want trouble in the neighbourhood, or anyone harming his employees, who have been brought in to work for his Basma Cleaning Company.
He said he was obliged to pay BD46,000 for the two-year contract for the accommodation.
Mr Nonoo said there was no legislation banning bachelor labourers living in residential neighbourhoods, but if the government sent him a paper saying otherwise, then the contract would be terminated immediately.
He said he was willing to promise the residents that his workers will not disturb the community.

Disaster scenario in the making!

AT last, a voice of reason. Hats off to the Manama Municipal Council for objecting to the go ahead for the North Shore development until a workable traffic plan is in place. It is a pity that the Roads Directorate had not done the same, sooner. It is not possible to continue the breakneck pace of urban development without the necessary infrastructure being available to support it, in particular roads. Infrastructure development should precede these projects, not trail them and forever be trying to catch up.
Over the last few weeks there have been several letters to the GDN regarding the ever-growing congestion on Bahrain's roads, in particular on the King Faisal Highway, but little response has been forthcoming from the planning authorities.
Any commuter can confirm the obvious - Manama desperately needs a proper ring road; that is a road free from traffic lights and roundabouts that enables traffic to keep moving freely. Historically, no sooner does a half-decent road appear than it starts to sprout traffic lights. The King Faisal Highway is a case in point. The Seef and Pearl flyovers are marvellous but all they have achieved is passing the inevitable traffic queues further into town. Between the Pearl flyover and the new Muharraq Bridge there are four sets of traffic lights. This is too many, particularly for a road where more than 70 per cent of the traffic is 'through' traffic.
The Regency lights are a real bottleneck during the morning and afternoon rush hours. The other day, during my daily grind to work, it took the usual 12 minutes plus to cross the Pearl flyover only to be stopped at the Regency lights to allow three cars out. When traffic is backed up, the two km length of the three-lane flyover can hold approximately 750 cars. Add to this another 100 or so cars trying to fight their way in from the Pearl roundabout slip road and around another 150 plus cars heading west and we have over 1000 vehicles being held up by just three, a ratio of around 350:1! In the afternoon the tailback reaches the Seef flyover more than doubling this number. Whilst this may be exceptional it does highlight the severe imbalance of the traffic, which even at the best of times only approaches a ratio of around 50:1.
Traffic exiting the Suq at Regency already has a slip road to the east. Westbound traffic could easily exit via the Pearl roundabout; a not very efficient but now underused resource. With re-timing the lights on this route and clamping down on the all pervasive double parkers (a mobile crusher unit would work wonders) this could be a perfectly viable route allowing the regency lights to be closed completely. Although this would push the queue onto the Sheraton lights it would at least allow the Pearl roundabout slip road to work more efficiently instead of the present free-for-all and reduce the time wasted waiting at traffic lights, thus improving journey times.
The Crown Plaza lights present a similar imbalance and are also too close to the Al Fateh Highway lights. At peak periods they are a potential source of gridlock. Within two km there are four major junctions, frequently with standing traffic and not a yellow box in sight (not that that would work since most drivers have 'photo-copier' eyesight - they cannot see yellow)!
As if this was not bad enough we are told that the Financial Harbour is on target for opening in April. The BFH traffic study has predicted a peak morning traffic flow of 5,900 vehicles per hour. Whilst these will not necessarily be 'new' vehicles (some commuters will just be changing office location) it will act to focus this traffic at one or two junctions on the King Faisal Highway. Not a pretty sight. And this does not take into account the potential extra traffic generated by the World Trade Centre when that opens.
The scene appears to be set for total disaster and although the city planners are talking of new flyovers and underpasses, this is just talk. Such projects take years to plan and implement. The crisis is IMMINENT. Doing nothing is not an option and it may already be too late! R D Hogg