KUWAIT: Astronomer Khaled Abdullah Al-Jamaan said that Kuwait is currently going through a seasonal transitional period, especially during the coming days till the beginning of April. This period is known as the 'Al-Sabq' season that usually takes place before the annual weather phenomena of Al-Sarrayat starting by mid-April. Jamaan added that both periods are characterized by rain that can sometimes be accompanied by dust, lightning and even hail. Jamaan explained that night and day hours would become equal on March 16 (equinox) before the daylight hours will start to get longer. He also noted that the equinox happens in Kuwait four days earlier than at the equator.

'Public Authority for Electricity'

Minister of Electricity and Water and Minister Oil Essam Al-Marzouq denied plans to merge or change Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) sectors until a law is passed on establishing a 'Public Authority for Electricity', especially since the law would allow changing MEW into an economic body making profits for the state instead of remaining a bureaucracy-stricken governmental one. Marzouq also expressed hope that the law would achieve substantial change in various MEW sectors and give the ministry more opportunities to restructure them properly as part of a 25-year privatization plan. Marzouq explained that the aim of privatization was to encourage the growth of the private sector because the government has limited vacancies for new graduates, while demand on employment is annually increasing. Separately, MEW statistics showed that the total sums collected for connecting electricity to new subscribers was KD 35.2 million by the end of the fiscal year 2015-2016 - KD 11.2 million more than the previous year, when only KD 23.9 million was collected, said MEW sources.  The sources also pointed out that MEW intends giving the Government Mall in Sabhan more authorities to deal with transactions.

Withdrawn citizenships

Minister of Justice And Minister of State for Assembly Affairs Faleh Al-Azab stressed that work on resolving the withdrawn citizenships' issue is on the right track. Speaking to reporters after yesterday's parliamentary session, Azab said that HH the Amir's instructions are always valued and respected and that forming a committee to follow the citizenship issue is up to HH the Prime Minister and the National Assembly Speaker. Responding to questions about threats made by some lawmakers to grill Cabinet members, Azab said he refuses using the term 'threat' because interpellations are lawmakers' constitutional rights and he has no problem with them as long as they are constitutional.

Data update

The Public Authority for Manpower's public relations and advertising manager and official spokesperson Aseel Al-Mazyad announced that the authority has started receiving employers or those authorized to sign on behalf of them to add mobile numbers of all registered companies in order to facilitate communicating with them. Mazyad explained that companies can download the needed application at the manpower website www.manpower.gov.kw, fill it up, sign it and submit it at the data section, where it would be checked and registered in the system. In other news, the Kuwait Central Statistics Bureau urged the finance ministry to provide it with more funds for  the bureau employees' salaries for the fiscal year 2016-2017 because the budget available will not be enough till March 31, 2017.

Direct purchase

The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor's (MSAL) cooperation sector has contacted the Union of Consumer Cooperative Societies (UCCS) to circulate a newly-issued directive on purchases made by various co-ops. According to the directive, importers of consumer items must have agencies accredited by the agencies department at the ministry of commerce and that they should directly deal with co-ops without any middlemen.

By A Saleh