City council to recoup cost, hand over pet care facility to ministry

The Male’ City Council decided on Wednesday to recoup the money it spent on developing ‘Olhu Hiyaa’, the pet care facility that recently opened in Hulhumale’, and hand over the facility to the Animal Welfare Ministry.

The pet care facility was developed under an agreement between the council and the ministry to address the growing stray cat population in the capital. Construction work began on the 5,000 square feet plot in the Farukolhufushi area of Hulhumale’ Phase II on March 19, and the facility opened on November 2.

The city council had been scheduled to start moving stray cats to the facility this week. But in a statement on Tuesday, the ministry announced that it has asked the council to suspend the transfer of the cats as the council had failed to comply with some of the ministry’s instructions.

The ministry also sent a letter instructing the council to hand over the facility to the ministry.

The council convened for a meeting on Wednesday morning to discuss the letter.

At the meeting, Mayor Adam Azim said that the city council had spent heavily on the pet care facility, and that the council’s staff had worked hard on developing it.

“We need to recover the money we spent. It was financed with the city council’s budget. We did not receive a budget to run the project. Everything was done with our budget and all the work was done by our staff. The facility is ready. It is ready to host cats,” said Azim.

Azim said the cat community keeps making new demands every time the council attempts to move the cats into the facility.

“We have been attending to it. And we have also invested a lot of money from the council’s budget for this,” he said.

Azim said that the city council receives a continuous stream of complaints from Male’ residents regarding the cat litter on the streets.

He said that it is better for the stray cats to be moved to the facility than to be allowed to roam around the city.

“I believe that with the stray cats dirtying the streets of Male’ and inconvenience residents, failing to move the cats to the facility after we spent so heavily on developing it is highly irresponsible,” he said.

He also said that the council wishes to working alongside the government, and that that is how the council had always operated.

At the meeting, Deputy Mayor Ahmed Nareesh proposed handing over the pet care facility to the ministry while also recouping the money the council spent on it.

“This council has done everything asked of us. This is all clearly evident. The council did everything. Theres nothing lacking. If the ministry wants it like this, the council should also be able to recoup the money it spent. The spending was done from the council’s budget,” he said.

The proposal passed with the unanimous consensus of all committee members in attendance.