A FRESH warning has been issued to charities and non-governmental societies that have mushroomed in a number of neighbourhoods flouting regulations.
The issues were raised by Northern municipal councillors during a special meeting on Wednesday to discuss government regulations for charity societies.
It was attended by officials from the ministries of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning and Labour and Social Development in addition to the Northern Municipality.
The council’s technical committee chairman Abdulla Al Qubaisi highlighted that many issues have risen within neighbourhoods with societies setting up in inadequate places due to a lack of specific requirements besides land specifications.
“These charities serve a noble purpose and people visit them on a regular basis for in-kind donations and cash aid,” he said.
“We’ve seen them set up in hallways with a tiny desk and other inadequate facilities that create an unsafe and uncivilised randomisation of the mechanism.
“There needs to be adequate parking spaces, facilities, a room to receive people and other elements in place instead of just broad requirements.”
Mr Al Qubaisi said that there have been fights and complaints in neighbourhoods caused by crowding, inadequate parking and other problems.
“In the past we would receive letters from the Northern Municipality asking for our approval for these establishments and we would approve it which has caused this mayhem,” he added.
“Now, they are attaching a letter of approval from the Labour and Social Development Ministry to their request which has controlled the process a little but we still need more clear regulations.”
Requirements
He added that only political societies were allowed to set up in any location under directives from the Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments Ministry.
Meanwhile, Labour and Social Development Ministry registration and advertising department head Ameena Al Jassim said that there were general requirements applicants are briefed on when applying for approval.
She stressed the importance of raising awareness about the requirements governing the establishment of societies that serve a large portion of the community.
She said that regional practices in the GCC could be researched and implemented in Bahrain.
Meanwhile, work is underway by the Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Ministry to scrap the ‘Public Services’ specification.
It will be replaced by 11 categories for land specifications, revealed the ministry’s Urban Planning and Development Authority urban planner Abdullateef Al Romaihi during the meeting.
“There are 11 new specific categories in the works to scrap the ‘public services’ general category as it includes clubs, societies and other projects,” he said.
“Work is also underway to add 37 new land specifications in various categories which means that some will be removed, others will be amended while some will be added.
“These new specifications will allow security buildings to be classified under security, fields will be under a sports specification and so on.”
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