ISO 9001:2008 CERTIFIED NEWSPAPER 2019 IAAF: D-Day for Doha today Sport | 26 Tuesday 18 November 2014 • 25 Muharram 1436 • Volume 19 Number 6253 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com [email protected] | [email protected] Editorial: 4455 7741 | Advertising: 4455 7837 / 4455 7780 PM meets Palestinian prime minister Business and visit Rising house visas via Metrash2 DOHA: Companies can now apply for business visas and truck drivers’ visas online through Metrash2 and the rents push up Ministry of Interior website, the Ministry said yesterday. Metrash2 is a smartphone application provided by the Ministry. Tourist visas will also inflation to 3pc be available through these chan- nels very soon, said a ministry statement. The General Directorate Rentals climb 8.2pc in October: CPI of Nationality, Borders and Expatriate Affairs at the Ministry DOHA: House rents continue incidentally, have together the has launched the service to to jump undeterred due to gal- largest share of 32.2 percent in stop dealing with paper-based loping demand for residential the CPI basket. In simple words, transactions. units driven by the exploding a household is expected to spend The Director General of General population. 32.2 percent of its monthly income Directorate of Nationality, Latest consumer price index on house rent and fuel and elec- Borders and Expatriate Affairs (CPI) details show that house tricity on average. Brigadier Abdullah Salim Al Ali rents climbed 8.2 percent year- The second largest head of said that the new service will be on-year in October, pushing the expenses of a family is transport available on condition that the overall rate of inflation to three and communications. Their share company should be working in percent. in the CPI basket is 20.5 percent, Qatar and should be recognised In September, the annual followed by food and beverages, by the departments concerned. increase in house rents was including tobacco (13.2 percent). There is no change in the fee equally high at 8.1 percent. The Entertainment and recreation The Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani with Palestinian structure. overall inflation rate was also form the third largest category of Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah yesterday. They reviewed bilateral relations and the latest Palestinian devel- THE PENINSULA slightly higher at 3.6 percent. a family expenditure — its share opments. Hamdallah left Doha later yesterday. House rentals jumped by a in the CPI basket being 10.9 per- similar percentage, by 7.9 per- cent. The smallest share is that cent, year-on-year in the month of garments and footwear (5.8 of August this year. percent). The marginal fall in the over- Meanwhile, the country’s all rate of inflation in October population continues to grow First Kahramaa solar power plant by 2016 was due to declining food prices, unchecked putting pressure on BY MOHAMMAD SHOEB data issued by the Ministry housing stocks. Latest popula- package of solar power plant, be achieved through different water reservoirs,” he added. of Development Planning and tion figures suggest that more with a capacity of between 10 to packages over the next six years.” “For solar power, we are going Statistics for October 2014 suggest. than 171,000 people have entered DOHA: The first solar 15MW, a couple of months ago, The first solar power genera- to use the cutting-edge smart grid Rentals are clubbed with fuel the country between January power plant of Qatar General and construction contracts will tion facility in an area of 100,000 technology that can guide us to (petroleum products) and energy and October, 2014, most of them Electricity and Water Company be awarded by the first quar- square metres will be located in optimise production by minimis- (electricity) in the CPI basket. newly-recruited foreign workers. (Kahramaa), with 15 megawatt ter of next year. The plant will Duhail area. Kahramaa will need ing the cost such as asset and Since fuel and energy prices The country’s population as (MW) capacity is set to begin start operation before 2016,” said about 2msqm of open space to labour costs.” remain stable, the rise in the on December 31,2013 was 2.04 operation before 2016, a senior Saleh Hamad Al Marri, Head of produce 200MW of solar power, Asked about promoting private group is clearly due to rent hikes. million (2,045,239 to be exact). official of the utility distributor Renewable Energies Technologies and for that it is in the process use of solar power units by indi- The Ministry also attributed It increased to 2.21 million announced yesterday. Section at Kahramaa. of identifying 60 locations across vidual households and companies, the escalating cost of living in (2,216,500 to be exact) as on Kahramaa, as part of its efforts Al Marri, speaking to The the country. he said: “Kahramaa is working to the country to rising house rents. October 31, 2014. to promote alternative forms of Peninsula on the sidelines of ‘Solar “Given the high cost of land develop a regulatory framework “The rise is the highest among all Thousands of new housing energy, has plans to generate Qatar Summit’, said: “Kahramaa properties we are intending to in this regard. Once it is complete groups,” the development ministry units were expected to come on about 200MW of electricity from is trying to diversify its sources of build the solar power plants in dead and approved from all authorities said of house rents while releasing the market in 2014. sunlight by 2020. electricity, and have set a target to and free areas by utilising various concerned, we will announce the October inflation figures. THE PENINSULA “We floated the tender for generate about 200MW of power Kharamaa premises and other free same publicly.” Rent, fuel and energy, Continued on page 6 the construction of the first by 2020. However, the target will space such as the area on top of THE PENINSULA Explosion rocks Kobane SEC puts curbs Tech giants lobby for on students’ sick leave curbs on NSA snooping DOHA: The Supreme LONDON: A coalition of tech- to the Senate. “We urge you to Education Council (SEC) has nology and Internet companies pass the bill, which both protects asked Independent schools not is lobbying to curb US National national security and reaffirms to accept sick leave certificates Security Agency surveillance America’s commitment to the issued by private clinics and powers and for more transparency freedoms we all cherish.” hospitals to students, teachers on government data requests. The bill would also allow tech- and non-teaching staff. The Reform Government nology companies to disclose The move follows complaints Surveillance coalition, includ- the number and types of data about an increase in fake sick leave ing Facebook, Google, Twitter, demands from government as certificates that have a negative Microsoft and Apple, added its part of the continued transpar- impact on the performance of support for the race to pass a bill ency push from the industry. many schools. Only those certifi- through the US Senate before If the USA Freedom Act fails cates issued by the Hamad Medical the end of the year, which would to pass through the Senate before Corporation, public hospitals and inhibit mass data collection from the end of the year the process will primary health care centres are emails and Internet metadata. have to restart in January, and will acceptable, Al Sharq reported “The Senate has an opportunity be scrutinised by a new Congress quoting a circular issued by the this week to vote on the biparti- controlled a Republican party more Education Authority at SEC. san USA Freedom Act,” said the favourable to surveillance. THE PENINSULA Smoke billows after an explosion following an air strike in central Kobane in Syria yesterday. The US military coalition in an open letter sent THE GUARDIAN One in 30 children forces conducted 11 air strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria and 20 in Iraq since Friday. in US homeless WASHINGTON: A “historic high” of nearly 2.5 million chil- India pressing GCC to raise wages of its workers dren in the United States, or one in every 30 kids, experienced NEW DELHI/DUBAI: India and dangerous jobs in the region, Over the past seven months, a spokesman for the Ministry of workers,” said Mohammed homelessness last year, according is pressing countries in the Gulf from construction to the oil indus- Indian diplomats in Bahrain, Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) Jindran, Managing Director of to a new study released yesterday. to raise the wages of millions try, transport and services. They Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia in New Delhi, said. UAE-based recruitment agency The number reflects the national of Indians working there, in a account for nearly half of the and the United Arab Emirates have The success of India’s strategy Overseas Labour Supply. rate of poverty and a lack of drive that could secure it bil- roughly 50 million population of the sharply increased the minimum is not yet clear, however. Officials The Indian government cannot affordable housing, among other lions of dollars in fresh income six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council. salaries that they recommend for in at least some GCC nations have dictate the pay of its citizens in factors, the American Institutes but risks pricing some of its citi- So India’s campaign for much Indian workers at private and pub- expressed displeasure, and the the Gulf — decisions to hire work- for Research (AIR) reported. zens out of the market. higher pay could have an impact lic firms in those states. strategy could backfire if those ers are made by labour recruit- “Child homelessness has Over five million Indian nation- on economies around the region, “We want the Indian workforce countries end up hiring more work- ers in individual countries, which reached epidemic proportions in als are believed to be employed in especially if it leads to a general to be paid higher salaries.