| Moscow cannot cope with the flow of demands from beneficiaries The capital authorities, who publicly guaranteed that the monetization of benefits in Moscow would be painless for socially vulnerable segments of the population, have to prove the validity of their promises literally every day. Encouraged by the victories of Moscow and Moscow region pensioners on the “transport” front, low-income citizens who were not lucky enough to be included in the federal register of beneficiaries flocked to the mayor’s office and the Moscow City Duma with requests to provide them with a package of social benefits. However, being unable to satisfy all requests, officials and deputies, trying to maintain the usual populist expression of the city government, have already begun to make almost impossible promises.
The city seems to find it easiest to solve its problems with free travel. So, for example, having dealt with pensioners near Moscow, Moscow City Duma deputies proposed allowing free use of the metro and ground transport for persons accompanying disabled children, adult disabled people of group I, as well as combatants who have not reached retirement age. Yuri Luzhkov, in his response to this initiative, suggested that the Moscow City Duma not waste time on trifles and at the same time provide transport cards to Muscovites affected by radiation, parents of disabled children, widows and parents of fallen military personnel, as well as children from large families and orphans. Inspired by the support of the mayor, at their yesterday's meeting the deputies immediately voted for the bill to expand benefits in general, without even bothering to calculate the city budget funds that will be needed to compensate transport companies.
According to deputy Alexander Kovalev, who presented the bill, additional costs in connection with the increase in the number of beneficiaries in Moscow will amount to more than a billion rubles. “It’s difficult to say more precisely, since payment for transport services will be made upon actual delivery,” he explained. Mr. Kovalev believes that this money could come from additional income through the rental of city-owned space and other sources. However, legislators were not too interested in this - it is more important for the Moscow City Duma that the law be signed by the mayor as soon as possible and come into force before the end of February.
The Moscow authorities are no longer able to deal with other social problems that have emerged in the new year as effectively. In particular, officials are now literally besieged by large families, which, after the new Housing Code comes into force on March 1, will lose the right to priority provision of housing. The upcoming problems of large families, which will end up in the general queue, where some townspeople have been waiting for an apartment since 1982, have already been considered by Moscow City Duma deputies at meetings of factions and specialized commissions. However, the discussions were more like an attempt to justify themselves. So the speaker of the Moscow City Duma, Vladimir Platonov, at a meeting with heroine mothers on Tuesday tried to explain to angry women that this benefit was canceled not at the city, but at the federal level, and Moscow will not be able to return it - changes need to be made to the Housing Code. “Then let’s amend federal legislation!” - mothers of many children took the word of the chairman of the city parliament, who has the right of legislative initiative. In order not to escalate the situation, Mr. Platonov was forced to agree with the women, and it seems that the Moscow City Duma will soon propose to his colleagues from Okhotny Ryad a bill that is obviously doomed to failure. In addition, Moscow is also considering a backup option - including large families in the city program “Affordable housing for young families.” However, this program does not provide for the allocation of housing space by the municipality, but only a subsidy of the interest rate on the mortgage loan. Alexander GUDKOV |
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