Gulf Daily News

Manama, Dec 6: An established expat club will be taken to court after a council voted to evict it yesterday for disturbing peace.Legal action will now be taken against the Kerala Catholic Association (KCA), which is being thrown out of its headquarters in Segaiya by the Manama Municipal Council.

The council ordered the club to close following repeated warnings over noise and traffic congestion.

Area councillor Abdulma-jeed Al Sebea'a, who has spearheaded efforts to reach a compromise with the KCA, said he had hoped to delay legal proceedings to give the club time to fix the problem.

However, the Manama Municipality - the government body responsible for enforcing the council's decisions - is going ahead with court action to throw the KCA out of the area.

The council initially approved the eviction last week and acting municipality director-general Zuhair Al Dallal said he was only following the council's orders.

"Councillors represent the people and residents have been complaining that the KCA was creating noise and traffic jams in the neighbourhood for a very long time," he said at yesterday's council meeting.

"Residents don't want the club in the neighbourhood and have demanded for its closure.

Solution:

"Their plight was taken up by the council, which ordered the immediate closure.

"According to their wish and after looking at the club's status, we have decided to take the matter to court in order to get a verdict to close it down."

Mr Al Sebea'a, who is also the council's technical committee chairman, said he had planned to give the KCA more time to clean up its act.

He had asked for legal procedures to close the club be delayed for two weeks to give officials more time to comply.

"We can't stop legal proceedings, but the club could come up with real solutions to its problems in the meantime if it wanted to stay open," he said yesterday.

"Now the issue is out of the council's hands. It is with the municipality, which has been authorised to take executive decisions on the case."

The council claims it has been complaining to the KCA about noise and parking problems for the past four years.

However, the last straw came when a show marking the anniversary of Kerala's formation could be heard in people's homes on November 1.

The KCA has installed signs in front of its premises asking members not to park their cars outside its gates and assigned an usher to guide them where to park.

However, many club members and visitors allegedly continue to park in front of homes.

KCA secretary K M Thomas told the GDN yesterday that the club had not held any function since November 1.

"We didn't conduct any programmes or activities since the incident and it seems that the council is mixing up people going to other events nearby with us," he said.

"We oblige our members to park inside the club or on the main road and not inside the neighbourhood or in front of houses because we have every respect to the place where we stay.

"Members don't create any noise while conducting programmes and when someone gets enthusiastic, we tell them to keep noise down - not to disturb others."

Mr Tho-mas said the club had not received any notification of the legal proceedings as of yesterday evening.

"We will meet with KCA senior members and concerned officials to discuss the case," he added.

The KCA has 400 registered members and was licensed in 1969, but moved to its current location in 1997.