Minister of Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development Dr Abdulla Muththalib has strongly criticized the city councils of Male' and Addu.
Muththalib was in parliament today to address questions from MPs.
Responding to a question posed by Maradhoo MP Ahmed Didi, of MDP, Muththalib said that repair and maintenance of roads in cities is a responsibility of councils.
MP Ahmed Didi asked the Minister when work would commence on the Addu Link Road. In response, the Minister said that the work had been handed over to Road Development Corporation (RDC), who will begin the work soon. He then went on to criticize councils.
"I would like to say along with this, you are MPs elected by the people. It is not the responsibility of a government ministry to maintain the roads of islands. That responsibility falls on elected councils on those islands," he said.
"So when the Addu City council is given several hundred million from the State, and they still fail to have a mechanism in place to repair potholes on roads, then I believe that council has failed."
Muththalib also went on to speak about the Male' City Council.
He maintained that it is the State which ultimately has to tackle flooding in Male' streets, and questioned the purpose of the block grant allocated to the city council.
"When a road is damaged, or any issues arise, it is the government that is expected to address it. What is the use of the hundreds of million in block grants given to the council? Should the council simply exist just to talk with the citizens? What do they do?"
Muththalib went on to allege that the Male' City Council had also failed to cooperate with the government's Boduthakurufaanu Magu redevelopment project. He said that despite multiple letters having been sent to the council, they refused to remove a market on the northern side of Male' to facilitate road development work.
"Because they refused to remove the market, we had to complete the road without a pavement," Muththalib said.
Further, the council had also failed to respond to a letter concerning the contracting of the development of a market in north Male', he added.
While the Minister has criticized the city councils of Male' and Addu, the most recent Local Council Elections saw the majority of both councils go to opposition MDP.
