Bill proposes monthly stipend for dependents

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 31: Deputy National Assembly Speaker MP Ahmad Al-Shuhoumi submitted a bill on honoring employees involved in the fight against Covid- 19. The first category consists of employees who died of Covid-19 complications in the line of duty. They will be granted the Premium National Sacrifice Medal, while their dependents will receive KD250 monthly allowance. The second category includes the medical and administrative staff at the Ministry of Health, Kuwait Army, National Guard and Kuwait Firefighting Force who will be granted the Super National Safety Medal and KD200 monthly allowance.

The Cabinet shall specify the conditions that must be fulfilled to receive the medals. Meanwhile, MP Yousef Al-Ghareeb said the government has adopted a policy, which makes it too difficult to receive the frontliners’ incentive; in addition to the exclusion of employees receiving daily wages including Bedouns. He called on the Council of Ministers to revise these decisions to ensure the law on the frontliners’ incentive is not taken out of context or rendered useless. He also criticized the requirement for beneficiaries of the incentive to sign a commitment form, making them stand in long queues just to sign the document. He added such a scenario depicts an uncivilized image for Kuwait.

On the other hand, the parliamentary Women, Family and Children Committee approved the proposal of MP Marzouq Al-Khalifa to reduce the age of Kuwaiti women entitled to social allowance as per decree number 23/2013 from 55 years old to 45 years old. The bill was referred to the committee on Dec 28, 2020 for further study and to prepare a report in this regard.

MP Osama Al-Shaheen submitted a proposal to install surveillance cameras on the main streets and subways to tighten security and help the authorities in identifying anyone who commits a crime, traffic violation and those involved in road rage. He said the Ministry of Interior will supervise these cameras, which will help in preventing crimes and arresting criminals quickly. MP Al-SaifiMubarak Al- Saififorwarded queries to Minister of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy and Minister of State for Social Affairs and Societal Development Meshaan Al- Otaibi about the complaints he received from citizens who experienced difficulties while dealing with the Public Authority for Disabled Affairs (PADA). He wants to know the procedures that PADA follows in order to facilitate the completion of transactions, especially the issuance and renewal of disability certificates; online services that the authority has been providing since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis; if there is a special committee tasked to check those with genetic disabilities and syndromes; number of those whose degree of disability has been lowered since 2019 and reasons for reduction; criteria adopted by the relevant committee to specify the genetic disabilities and if Down’s syndrome is considered one of such disabilities. By Saeed Mahmoud Saleh Arab Times Staff