House approves extra funds for drought

PARLIAMENT yesterday gave the thumbs-up to €50 million in additional government spending earmarked at tackling the drought.

The motion was approved by a majority of 29 votes (with 14 abstentions). The cash is part of a total package of €117.5 million included in the supplementary budget for 2008.

The remaining €67.5 million, which remains to be approved, concerns compensation to farmers.

Of the €50 million, four million is to be spent on purchasing water from neighbouring Greece, 35 million to the cost of transportation, 2 million on pipe-laying, 2.8 million on improving water supply systems serving towns and villages, and 6.2 million to expanding the capacity of desalination plants.

The plenum also voted in a bill allowing the director of the Cyprus Stock Exchange to transfer shares of deceased people to their lawful heirs, provided the share value does not exceed 2,000 euros. The purpose of the legislation is to facilitate the claim of heirs, who until now had to make their claim through the stock market register—a lengthy and costly process. Deputies argued that in some cases, the applicants’ expenses were higher than the value of the stocks being claimed.

The legislature also endorsed an amendment, whereby police investigators are given a maximum of 48 hours to access and process telecommunications data (such as phone calls and transcripts), for kidnapping cases. At the end of the time limit, police must secure a court order or else destroy the data. Previously, police were allowed up to five days to dispose of the information. The amendment was proposed because of concerns that personal information might be abused.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.