Designated area not ready for workers move
DOHA: With hardly six months left for implementation of the law banning accommodations of single workers in residential areas, the New Industrial Area is not yet ready to take the thousands of workers who will be relocated from different parts of the city.
Several citizens, however, have called on the authorities to stick to the November deadline for implementing the law and force the companies to comply with the law.
The New Industrial Area is one of the several locations in the country earmarked for constructing accommodations for labourers.
“Many companies are not serious about providing alternative accommodations for their workers. They would come out with some lame excuses in the last moment. Only a strict implementation of the law would force them to comply with the rule,” Abdullah Al Sulaiti, a sitting member of the Central Municipal Council (CMC) was quoted by Al Sharq as saying.
According to Hassan Al Hakeem, a businessman, the law was beneficial for families in many ways. Once the labourers are moved from residential areas, it will create more residential space for families, resulting in a possible fall in house rents. He urged the authorities to ensure that the new labour accommodations would be attached with all necessary facilities for the targeted group such as shopping centres.
He said work in the New Industrial Area was moving very slow.
Many people who have been allotted land in the locality to build labour accommodations have not yet started work. “Such unused plots should be re-allotted to other people,” said Al Hakeem.
According to Fahd Saeed, the new law has both positive and negative implications. Shifting labourers from residential areas is a good thing for families but concentration of workers from different nationalities in one locality could lead to a rise in crimes. He called on the government to beef up security to prevent such a situation. The Peninsula
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