The Manama Municipal Council says it was shocked to hear that Municipalities and Agriculture Affairs Minister Mansoor bin Rajab has recently asked for a month to study the council’s decision to ban reclamation before taking any action.
The councilors say they are upset that while the minister studies the matter, the investor will be continuing the reclamation work.
Council services and public utilities chairman and area councillor Hameed Al Basri is also accusing the government of carrying out the reclamation work for the investor.
"I have inspected the site and found a couple of government employees, supervising the work, and when I asked, they said they were following orders," he said.
"If this is a privately-owned land, why is the government doing the reclamation work?
"The only person able to stop this investor is His Majesty. The more the investor continues work, the hope for fishermen to have their jetty and people having a coast will disappear. All this will be mentioned in a letter to His Majesty."
Calls for negotiations have been spearheaded by Mr Bin Rajab, who conveyed to the fishermen that the developer reclaiming the sea has agreed to build a jetty for them.
The developer has been reclaiming the sea despite a ban issued last month by the council.
Councillors had said that they discovered that the coast was not earmarked for further reclamation under the National Plan, spearheaded by Crown Prince and Economic Development Board chairman Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
The fishermen have been staging a string of demonstrations over the past eight we-eks in protest of the continuation of reclamation work.
They are claiming that the government is refusing to build them a small jetty, while allowing developers to reclaim and build, despite restrictions by the Unesco maqeel@gdn.com.bh
