Saturday
27th Apr 2024
Dhivehi Edition
Hawwa Ali. Photo: AEG
Hawwa “Hawwatha” Ali has had her Hiyaa housing flat returned to her. The government had come under heavy criticism after the Commoner’s Friendship Association, a local NGO, had published a video which showed Hawwatha and the squalid and cramped conditions in Maafannu in Malé City, where she currently resided.
Hawwatha had been allocated a housing unit by the previous administration. However, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih had claimed that there had been “corruption” in the previous administration’s Hiyaa flat allocations and had established a Flat Committee to revise the allocations.
The Hiyaa housing programme had been initiated by former President Yameen Abdul Gayyoom, and it oversaw the construction of 7,000 housing units in the Hulhumalé Phase 2 area.
In a statement released by the Commoners’ Friendship Association, they stated that the Flat Committee had decided to not disqualify Hawwatha in the final list released last week, after having removed her from the provisional assignment list.
The Association said that this was made possible through the hard work of the media and the public, and extended their gratitude. The case of her flat had been covered by Dhiyares, sister-newspaper of The Maldives Journal.
The government had faced a lot of criticism from the government after the Commoners’ Friendship Association published their video presentation of Hawwatha’s living conditions.
The Commoners’ Friendship Association said that they would work on behalf of other poor people, like Hawwatha, who had lost their homes. They said that she, too, would strive on their behalf.
More than 3,000 people who had been assigned flats have been disqualified in the final revisions published by the Flat Committee.