Muizzu pledges to build houses for all recipients of land from Male’ area

Opposition PPM-PNC coalition’s presidential candidate Dr. Mohamed Muizzu has pledged to build houses for all recipients of land from the Male’ area under the current administration’s ‘Binveriya’ scheme.

Muizzu’s housing manifesto launched during a campaign event held at Hulhumale’ Phase II on Sunday night envisions paving the way to build houses on the land awarded to recipients under the scheme, should they request.

It further assures to guarantee ‘actual’ housing for recipients of land under government schemes, by ending land awarded under such schemes are not empty land or a lagoon.

Speaking at Sunday night’s event, Muizzu said houses will be built on the lands through a special government fund.

The presidential candidate from the opposition coalition said although land is awarded, not every recipient will find it easy to build a house due to the existing banking system in the Maldives. He cited the development of houses by way of long-term leasing for private developers as an obstruction to solving the housing issue.

Muizzu also added that taking back the land awarded to recipients by the current administration will not be his policy.

“Our plan will be to provide housing, and offer the same opportunity for individuals who have yet to get it,” he said.

Planning Ministry published the permanent list of 5,000 recipients of the ‘Binveriya’ scheme last week.

Draws for plot allocation, issued for free under the scheme, have been ongoing since Tuesday.

While the tentative list had listed 19,858 eligible applicants, the permanent list lists 19,865 eligible applicants.

Housing Ministry previously said that 18,955 applicants will receive plots from the land that is currently available, while the remaining 684 applicants receive plots from land that will be added later. They include applicants who are under 25 years of age and are unmarried and childless.

As per the Ministry, all applicants on the list will have land registered to their name before the end of the current term.

Meanwhile, the reclamation of land to issue the plots is presently underway at Gulhifalhu and Giraavarufalhu.