Parliament rejects amendment on issuing land in three months

The bill proposing an amendment to the Land Act, wherein land plots which have not so far been issued must be handed over in a period of three months, has been rejected by Parliament today.

The bill, proposing the ninth amendment to the Land Act was proposed by opposition Maldivian Democratic Party MP Meekail Ahmed Naseem during the 19th Parliament.

The 19th Parliament, which had an MDP majority, passed the bill. However, the President did not ratify the bill and sent it back to parliament.

Debate on the bill was resumed in today's meeting of the 20th Parliament, which now has a ruling People's National Congress super-majority.

MDP MPs proposed that the bill be forwarded to the committee for further review.

However, the vote taken on the proposal showed 75 members voting against, with only the 12 members of MDP voting in favour.

As the proposal was rejected, a vote was taken in accordance with the Parliament Regulations to see if the bill could be passed as is.

This vote saw 76 votes against passing the bill, with once again the MDP members alone voting in its favour.

The amendment was proposed initially citing delays in the handover of land plots by the current government to those allocated land under former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih's administration's 'Binveriya' housing scheme.

The amendment stated that the land plots must be handed over within three months of the recipients' list being published in the Gazette. It then stated that any land plots pending issuance must be issued within three months of the ratification of the bill.

The letter sent by the President when he returned the bill without ratification stated that the reasons for the delay in handing over land plots is due to obstructions posed as a result of where the land plots were allocated from, and because land registries are not issued for land which has not been reclaimed yet.

The letter also said that the law stipulates persons must start living at the allocated land within a defined period, and the proposed bill may pose difficulties in achieving that.

It pointed out that some of the land mandated for handover by the bill includes land that has not even been reclaimed to date.

The letter went on to say that the bill had been passed without consideration to these factors despite the Ministry having brought this to the parliament's attention at the committee stage.

The letter also pointed out that a Land Bill more suited to the present day has been proposed, and questioned whether, in light of that, this amendment would bring about tangible results.