Protestors have tried to enter the Housing Ministry building as anger mounts over the delays in announcing flat recipients of the Gedhoruveriya housing scheme.

About 30 people went to the Housing Ministry on Sunday demanding a meeting with Minister Dr. Ali Haidar Ahmed. However, officials refused to meet with the protestors.

Police rushed to the scene when the protestors entered the Housing Ministry compound and attempted to enter the building.

On Thursday, Haidar said the re-evaluated list for the first 4000 flats would be made public before the end of the week.

"The last day of the week... When does the week start? So I will repeat it once again. On the day before the next week starts," Haidar told Adhadhu.

But in a press release issued on Saturday, the Housing Ministry said more time was needed to re-evaluate all 20,697 application forms.

"Although this process is taking long, the government’s objective is to ensure that the rights of any applicant for flats under the scheme are not lost and that the flats developed under the scheme are allocated to the rightful owners," it stated.

Housing Ministry had earlier decided to publicize the list before the end of October. But it was postponed to the second week of November for further re-evaluation.

In an interview with state broadcaster PSM, Haidar said the decision to re-evaluate was due to advice from the committee set up by the ministry and the city council.

"After re-evaluating all the forms, we will hopefully release a provisional list within the next week. Then we will open the opportunity to file complaints. We will do that work and hopefully hand the flats over before the end of this year," he said on November 9.

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.