KUWAIT: Riyadh Al-Adasani yesterday called on the government to utilize a number of special towns built to house expatriate workers, some of whom currently stay in family-populated areas, resulting in "problems". Adasani said the government had awarded contracts to major consortia to build six towns to house expatriate workers and some of them are already ready but remain vacant for no apparent reason.

The lawmaker said single expatriates are still living in family areas and causing some problems, although the main purpose of building the towns was to send expats there to avoid social problems. About six such towns have already been built or are still under construction in areas away from families. There are around 3.2 million expatriates in Kuwait along with 1.4 million citizens.

Five lawmakers yesterday submitted a proposal calling for forming a parliamentary committee to investigate the issue of fake university degrees and the lack of sufficient preparations by the education ministry ahead of the start of the new school year. The lawmakers - Mohammad Al-Dallal, Ali Al-Deqbasi, Osama Al-Shaheen, Farraj Al-Arbeed and Mubarak Al-Hajraf - charged that several schools had deficiencies in air-conditioning, sewage and other basic services. They demanded the formation of a three-member committee to investigate these two issues and present its report within three months. The committee will be formed when the Assembly starts its new term next month.

Meanwhile, Islamist opposition MP Mohammad Hayef yesterday charged that many immoral violations are being committed at some massage shops. He said that the interior ministry has not been showing sufficient cooperation on this issue and called for allowing only clinics to provide massage services under strict supervision.

By B Izzak