The Housing Ministry has postponed the release of a list of recipients of the first 4,000 flats under the Gedhoruveriya housing scheme after claiming that there were issues with the list compiled by the committee.
In a statement today, the Housing Ministry said the list of recipients needs to be further re-evaluated and that the final list will be made public in the second week of November. The re-evaluation has now begun, the ministry said.
"The ministry has started re-evaluating all the application forms under the scheme as the list compiled by the Housing Advisory Committee formed by the President and the Housing Consultative Committee formed by the Male' City Council is unsatisfactory."
The postponement comes after Housing Minister Ali Haidar assured that the list of recipients will be announced by the end of this week if there were no problems.
On July 29, Haidar told the Parliament Petitions Committee that efforts were being made to compile a final list of flat recipients before the completion of the buildings under the scheme.
The Indian government completed and handed over 700 housing units to the Maldivian government on October 7. These were to be given under the Gedhoruveriya scheme.
The former government had declared 15,046 applicants eligible for the Gedhoruveriya housing scheme. The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) government, at the time, decided to give flats to all of them.
After the first list of 4,000 recipients was announced, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) ordered a temporary halt to work on the flats following a complaint filed with the commission.
On February 5, ACC announced that 59 percent of recipients chosen by the previous government did not meet the eligibility criteria. The commission also found problems in the application forms of 19.7 percent of recipients who met the criteria.
Meanwhile, the Housing Ministry has also changed the land use plan for Gulhifalhu just one day before the new draw among those who received land plots under the Binveriya scheme.
According to an announcement published in the gazette by the Housing Ministry on Friday night, the draw will begin at 9:00 am on October 29 (Tuesday) at Dharubaaruge Rannabanderi Maalam.
The land use plan for Gulhifalhu was published on October 14, but it did not have the details of the lot numbers. The details were uploaded to the Hiyaavahi portal yesterday and a few hours later, a new land use plan was again published.
Under the new plan, a large area has been designated as an industrial zone. The previous plan had 84 land plots in the area. It is unclear where the land plots were moved to in the new plan.
Those who decided to give up land plots from Giraavarufalhu to get plots in Gulhifalhu will also take part in the draw tomorrow. Information on the registry of land and agreements with landowners will be shared later after the draw.
The previous government had decided to allot plots to 97 percent of the applicants. That is 9,001 plots for 18,955 people. The land is being provided from Hulhumale' Phase 2 and 3, Gulhifalhu and Giraavarufalhu.
