Category: News in Brief

Individual atolls and administrative regions will each receive allocations from the 2011 state budget as part of a Cabinet policy to try and “facilitate” more decentralised governance within the Maldives.

On a recurrent basis, 30 percent of total expenditure outlined in the budget will be provided to central government, with the largest share – amounting to 50 per cent of the funding – provided to islands.

Individual atolls will receive 13 per cent of the budget, while an allocation of the final seven percent will be granted to administrative regions.

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Climate change has emerged as the most important aspect of Maldivian foreign policy, writes Anand Kumar for the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis.

“Therefore, it is hardly surprising that President Nasheed has been trying to highlight the issue at all global fora. Most recently, while speaking to students in Oxford University, he urged them not to work for oil and coal companies which were responsible for major carbon emissions into the environment. He also pointed out that these companies were also funding campaigns to deny the existence of climate change. He pleaded with the students to instead join those companies engaged in the area of alternative energy sources and green technologies.

“However, his campaign on climate change has come to be mired in some controversy after a UK media report, citing documents leaked by Wikileaks, suggested that Maldives had pushed for US $50 million assistance from the US government in exchange for unequivocally backing the Copenhagen Accord.”

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Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) Deputy Leader Ali Waheed has said that despite the respect he holds for former Maldivian president and party head Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, he “cannot accept” his possible return to power, Miadhu reported.

In an interview with DhiFM, Waheed reportedly said that having already ruled the country for 30 years, Gayyom’s potential return could set back the DRP, adding it was “not fitting” for him to rule again.

The report added that although there had been no official confirmation that Gayoom had any plans to return to active politics following his retirement earlier this year, Waheed claimed that some members within the DRP have made “outrageous statements” about the former leader and his intentions.

“I respect Maumoon. I support him a lot. I hold him with great reverence. But still I cannot accept his return to power,” Miadhu quoted Waheed as saying during the DhiFM interview.

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Male’s Velaanage building, which houses the offices of a number of government ministries, was hit yesterday morning by flooding on a number of floors due to a loose water pipe, Haveeru has reported.

Equipment on both the building’s eighth and ninth floors has reportedly been damaged in the incident, which also led to parts of the ceiling on both of the levels collapsing and power cuts in five of the site’s elevators.

Mohamed Saleem, Senior Supervisor of Housing Ministry and the head of maintenance at the building told Haveeru that security officials at the site raised the alarm over the flooding at about 5.40am yesterday morning.

“When I checked, water was leaking from the office area of the ninth floor. A valve joint had come loose above the tea room,” he was quoted as saying in the report.

The administrative section of the Education Ministry was reportedly worst hit during the flood, though water reportedly managed to make its way down to the ground floor of the 14-storey building

High pressure has been blamed for the flooding, according to Haveeru.

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The US Department of Labour will fund the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to conduct a US$640,000 project implementing fundamental rights, labour law and administration reform in Maldives.

The Department said the grant would assist the Maldives “in developing a well-functioning system of labor relations, labor law and labor administration”, and would involve the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Human Resources, Youth and Sport, the Labour Relations Authority, Employment Tribunal, and worker and employer organisations.

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Opposition Leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali has said he will ask police to investigate the disruption of a Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) rally on Tuesday evening, reports Miadhu.

The meeting was disrupted when former Deputy Leader Umar Naseer and his supporters attempted to enter the venue. Naseer had recently been dismissed by the party’s disciplinary committee, raising the potential for a split in the party.

Miadhu reported Thasmeen as saying thatthe disruption was “planned out by certain individuals.”

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