President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has revealed the government plans to construct office buildings for island councils on every inhabited island. He made the remarks while addressing the space constraint issues faced by local councils and Women’s Development Committees (WDCs) at a session held during the Viavathi Raajje conference.
At the session on women’s empowerment, presidents of WDCs noted that local councils are already facing space constraints and requested the government to allow WDCs to establish themselves at council administrative buildings or other buildings under the jurisdiction of the councils.
Addressing the concerns, President Solih said the current administrative buildings of local councils are 40-50 years old and that the Ministry of National Planning, Housing and Infrastructure is formulating a plan to solve the issue of space constraints. As such, he said that office buildings will be built on every inhabited island that will have enough space to house local councils, WDCs, magistrate courts, and banking services.
Furthermore, President Solih said the office buildings will allow members of local councils and WDCs to work together in accordance with the Decentralisation Act. He, however, added the project to construct the office buildings will take time to complete.