Parliament rejects emergency motion alleging corruption in Gulhifalhu land draw

The Parliament on Wednesday rejected an emergency motion submitted by the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) raising concern that having government official instead of recipients draw the lots in the new draw held to reallocate the land plots awarded from Gulhifalhu under the ‘Binveriya’ housing scheme could lead to corruption.

The emergency motion was presented to the Parliament on Wednesday morning by Meekail Ahmed Naseem, the parliamentary representative for the South Galolhu constituency.

However, the motion was rejected with a majority vote of 46-10.

The new draw to reallocate land plots from Gulhifalhu began on Tuesday.

In his motion, Meekail expressed concern that the lots were drawn by officials from the Housing Ministry instead of the recipients themselves, and also over the delay in the handover of land plots under the ‘Binveriya’ scheme and flats under the ‘Gedhoruveryia’ scheme – both of which were initiated by the MDP administration which held office from 2018-2023.

Meekail said that the draw was initiated without prior notification to the recipients. He also said that having ministry officials draw the lots constitutes to “the infringement of the rights of thousands of people” and could also lead to corruption.

Meekail argued that the issue is of deep concern to the public.

“I condemn the actions of the government, and call on the government to do this in a transparent manner and to release the list of recipients of the flats without any further delay,” he said.

The new draw comes after the Housing Ministry changed the land use plan for Gulhifalhu.

The Housing Ministry has now decided to issue 3,520 plots from Gulhifalhu. This includes people awarded plots from Giraavaru Falhu who requested to have plots from Gulhifalhu instead.

The MDP administration reclaimed 150 hectors of land from Gulhifalhu to issue land plots. The incumbent People’s National Congress (PNC) administration decided to reclaim an additional 85 hectors.

Total 18,955 applicants had qualified for land under the ‘Binveriya’ scheme. The former administration issue 9,003 plots under the first phase of the scheme, from land reclaimed from Hulhumale’, Gulhifalhu and Giraavaru Falhu.