Municipality warns against tampering with public home

Tampering with the street lights
 

Damaging lamps on streets and parks can pose severe danger to individuals. Vandals frequently tamper with the safe cover of the panel and mess up with the wires which trigger inconvenience to other individuals particularly at nights.

This also burdens the municipality as it has to devote cash on restoring them. In an try to address this phenomenon, the municipality conducts numerous awareness programmes on sustaining public facilities and consequences of tampering with them.

According to Article two of Local Ordinance No 32/97 on the Protection of Public Utilities of Muscat Municipality, “It is prohibited to damage municipal facilities, equipment and supplies, whether by tampering, cracking, sabotage, etc. These include, irrigation systems and water connections, toilet supplies and connections, electricity meters, water and telephone lines, chairs, umbrellas, games and lighting, parks, squares, public squares, streets, address boards, and any other belonging of the municipality.”

Installing unlicensed speed bumps
Installing unlicensed speed breakers also is a current phenomenon, the municipality mentioned. “These breakers lack the optimal technical standards, or they are installed in random places. They are often installed without warning signboards, and they are not painted properly. “The request for a speed-breaker can be submitted by an individual or a group to a local authority such as the Directorate General of Muscat Municipality, the Wali’s Office or the ROP’s traffic engineering department,” Muscat Municipality mentioned in its statement. Muscat Municipality has mentioned that if its officials locate such speed humps at any spot, it will get rid of them and can impose a fine up to RO500 on violators.

Digging streets

Digging streets is a frequent practice by organizations involved in supplying numerous solutions. Some operates are frequently carried out against municipality specifications. “Such acts could cause a land collapse posing serious danger to drivers and vehicles. Such roads may also get damaged due to water accumulation,” the municipality mentioned. According to the Local Ordinance on street excavation and Article 16 of Decision No 212/2017, cutting mountains and conducting excavation operates on roads with out a municipal licence is an offence which can attract administrative fine of RO2,500.

Information Source: Muscat Daily