Atoll youth centers to be handed over to Councils

Youth Minister Mohamed Hussain Shareef (Mundhu) has said that the decision has been made to hand over atoll youth centers to Councils.

In a recent interview with Sun, Mundhu said that it has not yet been decided whether to hand over the youth centers to atoll councils or island councils.

The Youth Minister said that the former government had no solid regulations for the operation of these centers. Losses have been incurred as a result of the centers being managed by different groups.

“This is how it worked previously: the centers were handed over to an organization in the island under some agreement. The organization received monthly financial support from the Ministry’s budget. That was the end of the government’s responsibility - they did not monitor how the centers were operated. Several centers had been released with political motives as well,” Mundhu said.

He said that the idea behind handing over youth centers to Councils is to hand them over to the people. He said that the people will be allowed to consume the benefits of the centers without any bias or discrimination. Also, the ministry will monitor how they are run by the Councils.

Mundhu also said in the interview with Sun that the Youth Minister will no longer chair the National Sports Majlis. He added that this is a significant amendment to the structure of the Sports Council.

“A political person acting as the leader for professional athletes, or for sports managers - I think this is like trying to mix water and oil,” Mundhu said.

He further said that it had been decided to end the restrictions imposed by former government on work permits issued to Bangladeshi citizens coming to Maldives to work for the first time. This will soon be reviewed and the restriction will be lifted.

“A recent decision made by the former government was to temporarily discontinue allowing Bangladeshi citizens coming to work in Maldives. This will be reviewed soon and we will work with Immigration to release the permits. I do not believe that the solution to an internal problem we may have, is to restrict foreigners coming here to work,” the Minister said.

The former government made the decision to restrict issuing work permits to Bangladeshi citizens for a period of two months. The period comes to an end at the end of this month. If this regulation is to be followed, work permits to Bangladeshis will not be issued until next month.

Mundhu further said that the government will work towards holding next year’s SAFF Championship in Sri Lanka and Maldives. It has been decided to hold discussions with Sri Lankan sports ministers in this regard.