KUWAIT: MP Saleh Ashour yesterday called for immediately expelling all single men from block 13 of Salmiya because of the "danger" they pose to Kuwaiti families in the area and for putting public services under pressure. The lawmaker called on the government to form a committee from various ministries and government agencies to draw a plan for evicting them from the residential area. He said the presence of "unmarried" men in the area has created numerous problems for residents and contributed to the deterioration in the standard of public services in the area.

Ashour cited crowding at the area's public clinic, traffic congestion and substandard cleaning services, in addition to social and security problems facing residents resulting from the presence of "bachelors". The lawmaker said the presence of bachelors in the area is a violation of the law and several official statements stating that evicting single men from residential areas is in the interest of the public.

Ashour urged authorities to immediately start ordering bachelors to leave the area and cut electricity supply from houses leased to single men. The Municipality and interior ministry agencies have in the past launched campaigns to evict single expatriates living in so-called model areas mostly inhabited by Kuwaitis.

MP Thamer Al-Suwait meanwhile submitted a draft law calling for the naturalization of at least 2,000 people in the course of the current year. The proposal aims at paving the way for the government to grant Kuwaiti citizenship to thousands of bedoons or stateless people. The National Assembly has been passing such laws every year for the past several years, but the law has not been implemented.

But this proposal is different from previous laws, since if approved, it obliges the government to grant Kuwaiti citizenship to at least 2,000 people. Around 120,000 bedoons live in the country, but the government says only 34,000 of them qualify for consideration to secure citizenship, while the rest have nationalities of other countries.

The constitutional court yesterday set Jan 27 to issue its verdict regarding an objection filed by MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaei against last month's ruling in which the court considered article 16 of the Assembly's internal charter as unconstitutional. Article 16 was used by the Assembly to retain the membership of Tabtabaei and MP Jamaan Al-Harbash after they received jail terms for storming the Assembly building in 2011.

By B Izzak