LOCALARAB TIMES, SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2019

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Stringent security measures help apprehend14,000 ‘deportees’ trying to re-enter country

European in suit and tie caught begging in posh malls

KUWAIT CITY, May 18: As the region passes heated up and turbulent situations, Kuwait has imposed stringent security measures at the air, sea and land ports to prevent the infi ltra-tion of any criminal elements, reports Al-Qabas daily.

According to the secu-rity sources, some suspi-cious elements are seeking to enter the country, under the current disturbing cir-cumstances but the security authorities in the country to a large extent are ready and prepared to face any events.

The sources revealed this is in addition to the finger-print devices or the so-called ‘Detecting the undesirable’ persons which were installed in 2011 at the airport and land and sea ports and has so far been succeeding in identify-ing 14,000 people who tried to enter the country again with new passports, after acquiring fake documents and using unreal names.

The sources said the finger-print devices has to a large extent proved big successes in detecting manipulators and those involved in counterfeit-ing, and thwarted their attempts to push into the coun-try scores of people who had been arrested and deported.

According to the sources, the fingerprint device takes only 3 seconds to reveal the identity of any person who is coming or leaving, even if he/she carries a forged pass-port, indicating that this fin-gerprint device shows if the person was deported earlier or not, or his/her name is on the list of persons wanted by law, denied entry and/or is prohibited from traveling, or attempting to exit illegally.

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European beggar: In a strange incident, the security authorities have taken into custody an unidentified European beggar who alleg-edly entered the country a few days ago on a visit visa, reports Al-Rai daily.

The daily added, the sus-pect wearing a suit and tie was seized in one of the posh mar-ket areas of Kuwait for ‘beg-ging’. When he was arrested, he claimed he has American dollars and did not have time to change so thought of ‘bor-rowing’ money.

However, when police seized him they found on his possession about 1,200 dinars which he had ‘bor-rowed’ during his days in Kuwait. Records show he arrived in Kuwait about 10 days ago and was staying in a three-star hotel.

Further interrogations unveiled the man used to visit Gulf capitals for the same purpose and as a result had collected a lot of money.

His name has been added to the list of persons barred from entering Kuwait. In the mean-time he has been handed over to the Capital Investigation Department.

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‘Give up nationality’: An unidentified Kuwaiti woman – formerly a citizen of an unidentified GCC country – has filed a complaint with the Mubarak Al-Kabir Police Station accusing her compa-triot husband of beating her and threatening to throw her out of the house, chain her and force her to beg in front of a mosque if she does not give up her Kuwaiti nation-ality, reports Al-Rai daily.

When the security officers asked her why she was mal-treated and beaten, she said her husband wants her to relinquish her Kuwaiti nation-ality, which she obtained after she married him.

However, when the hus-band was summoned for inter-rogation he admitted to the charge and said there were some differences between them and that his wife stuck to her statements (he did not say what the statements were).

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Two deported: Two people who arrived at the Kuwait International Airport were sent back to their countries of origin by the Kuwaiti authori-ties, reports Al-Rai daily.

In the first case, an uniden-tified Filipino was sent back because the visa which he came with was not duly attested by the concerned authorities in the Philippines, while in the second case, a Sri Lankan, who had been deported from the country for an unidentified offense arrived at the airport on a forged passport.

(KFSD photo)

The burnt jet-skis at the site of blaze in Shuwaikh. Six shops were burnt to ashes, no casualties were reported.

‘New-Kuwait 2035 Vision’ - (P-3)By Yousef Awadh Al-Azmi

Solving the education crisis in this country is easy, but it has been

made diffi cult due to its politicization, and with due respect for the foreign political obligation of the country.

However, the question that begs to be asked is - Is it rational to have just one public univer-sity, against which many o b s e r v a t i o n s have been raised even though it is lesser in stand-ard compared to others?

To any ob-server, the reasons behind the delay in opening the Shadadiya University and the fate of the huge buildings which are currently occupied by the university in Khaldiya, Kaifan and Shuwaikh campuses are unknown.

Dissemination of rumors and speculations continue but we cannot blame people for it, as preparations to transfer to the new location of the university are underway. At the same time, renovations are ongoing in the old location such as construction of a multi-storied parking building in the colleges of Arts and Education.

This kind of issue raises questions and speculations amid the govern-ment’s deafening silence concerning the university’s current location. We fail to understand the reason behind this provoking silence. What is the wisdom behind it?

Education in all stages needs a state plan and not just a government plan. The style we are accustomed to for learning our curricula is memoriza-tion and cue. We have a huge number of foreign teachers who have made education in this country worst by introducing bad experiences such as private tuitions.

Teachers have lost reverence, and the examinations set for the students

aim to incapacitate instead of deter-mining the level of student’s knowl-edge.

In a nutshell, the education system needs an overhaul, comprehensive review and general assessment. This should be done by the children of this country and not foreign bodies that are naturally oblivious of the dynam-ics of our society.

Another issue is the salary. Is it ra-tional to have different salary scales? For example, two teachers of almost equal qualifi cations employed by the government both receive salaries from the same Ministry of Finance. However, the difference between their salaries is almost KD 1,000 be-sides the benefi ts. What could be the reason for that?

Regarding the private sector, this sector is more repelling than attract-ing due to the way it is handled by the Public Authority for Manpower, its bureaucracy and the many documents that an employee must provide, espe-cially regarding the continuous data updates.

This sector mostly focuses on inspection than supporting the em-ployees, let alone the norm of con-tradictions experienced in industrial authorities in terms of distribution of vocational and industrial plots. We hear about how “wasta” and “scratch my back, I scratch yours” policy are the norm, which deprives those who deserve their rights such that they can get these rights only through “con-nections”.

For a mega project like “New-Ku-wait 2035” vision to kick start, it is imperative to engage in cleaning up the mismanagement, implementing proper regulations to treat everyone fairly, and setting the ball rolling towards achievements by employ-ing qualifi ed and creative workforce to stir us towards the future instead of putting our future at the mercy of “wastas”.

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Twitter - @alzmi1969

Al-Azmi

Other Voices

Fire wrecks jet-ski repairing shops in ShuwaikhThree fi refi ghting teams succeed-ed in extinguishing a huge fi re that engulfed six shops in Shuwaikh Industrial Area.

In a press release, the Public Relations and Media Depart-ment of Kuwait Fire Service Di-rectorate (KFSD) explained that the Control Room of KFSD, after

receiving information about the fire, dispatched three firefight-ing teams to the location along with securitymen and paramed-ics.

Upon arrival, they discovered that the fi re has engulfed garages that repair jet-skis and four shops that sell construction materials,

spreading over an area of 200 square meters.

The fi re was extinguished be-fore it spread further. No casual-ties were reported. Investigations have been launched to determine the cause of the fi re. High-ranking offi cials were present at the loca-tion.

KFSD photoThe front-end of the bus is crushed after colliding in the rear of a truck carrying a

container.C

Driver dead, 7 hurt in bus crashAn unidentifi ed Indian died and seven other people were injured following a deadly collision between a public trans-port bus and trailer truck piggy-riding a container, reports Al-Anba daily.

The accident took place on the Fourth Ring Road. A security source said lack of suffi cient distance between the bus and the truck was the cause of the col-lision.

The source pointed out, the deceases 39-year-old bus driver, identifi ed only as Muhammad F.Z. The injuries to the seven passengers vary from average to minor.

The source has called for the need to avoid speeding, especially when the time for breaking the fast approaches since many road mishaps are witnessed at this particular time due to lack of pay-ing attention.

Sentence cut: The Court of Ap-peals presided over by Judge Nasser Al-Haid cancelled the verdict issued by the Criminal Court which sentenced a Kuwaiti citizen to life imprisonment for drug traffi cking by importing a wooden box containing 4,800 grams of hashish from Thailand via postal services, says Al-Seyassah.

In its verdict, the court cleared the citizen of the charges of drug traffi cking but convicted him for importing the drugs for personal use, thereby sentencing him to fi ve-year imprisonment.

Lawyer Ibrahim Muhammad Al-Kandari appealed the verdict, raising suspicions about the deci-sion to seize and analyze the contents of the box, and the falsifi cation of the criminal investigations report. He explained that it weighed the entire box instead of separately weighing the contents which not only included hashish but also seeds which are not considered as drugs.

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MoI extends work hours: The Gen-eral Directorate of Public Relations and Security Media Information of the Minis-try of Interior has announced the offi cial working hours of the Ministry in evening will extend from 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm in all service centers in the six governorates except the Liberation Tower Service Center, reports Al-Anba daily.

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Two truckers held: One of the two Syrian truckers arrested for disposing off waste behind the fi rst bridge in Sebiyya area is reportedly involved in a breach of trust case.

A security source disclosed that of-fi cers from Jahra Security Directorate

‘Too late’

PAI misses chanceKUWAIT CITY, May 18: The Public Authority for Industry has missed a golden opportunity for the business community, trade and investment, because it was too late in creating ad-ditional storage areas in the country, as a result of the development of one million square meters allocated for this purpose, reports Al-Qabas daily.

The sources following up the issue said that due to the urgent need for many sectors in the country for stor-age sites, and in order to eliminate the random storage that is currently happening through the exploitation of some plots such as farms and infringe-ments on state property, the Municipal Council has stepped in at the request of the concerned authority.

The Cabinet in 2010 had allocated a total area of one million square me-ters to the Public Authority for Industry (PAI) to set up a warehouse in Kabad.

The decision stipulated that the implementation should begin within two years from the date of issuing the decision, otherwise it would be considered null and void.

As a result of the failure of the PAI to comply with the time limit set by the decision to implement the project within two years, PAI received a let-ter from thye Municipality stating the decision of allocating the land is con-sidered null and void.

received information that two individuals had been spotted discarding waste from their heavy duty vehicles behind the fi rst bridge in Subbiya area.

Acting on information, a team of security men reached the scene within minutes and caught the duo in the act. The fi rst suspect was referred to the En-vironment police and the second suspect to Jleeb Shuyoukh police station.

News in Brief

Al-Kandari

Man leaves country as Emirati, returns KuwaitiKUWAIT CITY, May 18: A Ku-waiti has fi led a complaint with the authorities accusing an immi-gration offi cer of creating a new database and helping a man to leave the country as ‘Emirati’ and returning to Kuwait as a Kuwaiti, reports Al-Rai daily.

According to sources a Ku-waiti was leaving the country and during the completion of formalities, he produced his Emirati identity. After check-ing the ID, the officer found that there was no data on him in the state apparatus, and ‘forced’

one of the officers to create a new database for him to leave the country.

Three days later the man re-turned to the country with a Kuwaiti civil card and records showed there was no record of leaving the country.

The security officers later dis-covered he had left the country on the strength of the Gulf ID, which raised the question marks about the database that was cre-ated when he left. The officer in charge of the database was sum-moned and investigated.

A security source said, “the of-fi cer, during interrogation, stated that he did not know that the per-son who traveled on the Emirati ID was Kuwaiti, because he pre-sented his Gulf card and when his name was not found in the system he had to create a new database to document his departure.”

A security source said the Ku-waiti has been summoned for interrogation to know the circum-stances of the incident and the rea-sons for leaving on his Gulf ID and returning on the Kuwaiti ID before taking legal action against him.