Parliament establishes permanent committee for housing

Parliament, in a first, has established a permanent committee to deal with housing-related matters.

Parliament Speaker Abdul Raheem Abdulla announced that the Committee was incepted while presiding over Wednesday’s sitting. The Committee was incepted by the unanimous votes of 79 lawmakers in attendance.

During the sitting, lawmakers also voted on how many members will be appointed to the Committee and whom. However, these details have not yet been disclosed.

The Committee’s responsibilities as per Article 143 of the Parliament’s Standing Orders are researching matters related to housing, counseling the government on measures that can be taken to resolve issues related to housing and pressing the government for the earliest completion of housing projects.

Other responsibilities of the Committee include:

• Overseeing the government’s housing projects, reviewing issues related to these projects and counseling the government on resolving these issues
• Ensuring all members of the public fairly receive their right to housing
• Identifying amendments required to national housing policies and submitting the same to the parliament
• Researching difficulties faced by the public over housing

The previous parliamentary assembly had 16 permanent committees. The incumbent parliamentary assembly passed its standing orders last week with 17 permanent committees, with plans to incept a permanent committee to deal with housing-related matters.

The committee has been incepted shortly after the public staged a protest over the delays in the handover of land and flats issued by the former administration.