Friday
22nd Nov 2024
Dhivehi Edition
Former Housing Minister Dr.Muizzu
The former Housing Minister and opposition mayoral candidate for Malé City, Dr Mohamed Muizzu, has described the government’s decision to sell off the one-room Hiyaa housing units built for newlyweds as an act of “cruelty”.
The government announced yesterday that they had cancelled the housing unit allocations for newlyweds, claiming an “absence” of such housing units. However, the first four floors of each of the Hiyaa Public Housing towers in the Hulhumalé Phase 2 area were one-room flats to be allocated through the Hiyaa Scheme.
Although the government has claimed that these units do not exist, public companies such as the Maldives Ports Authority have completed construction of these towers, and construction of other towers is still ongoing.
According to reliable sources, many of these units have been sold off by the government at high prices as commercial property. As a result, many people who had applied for public housing have been effectively disqualified from owning such a flat. The previous government had guaranteed housing units for all newlyweds who had applied.
In a statement released by Dr Muizzu on Twitter, the government’s sale of housing units built by a public company as commercial property, when the previous administration had guaranteed that newlyweds would secure a flat, was an act of “cruelty and injustice”.