Rubbish and Transport-Main Problems for Gori District

“Long holidays” of the government and the non-governmental organizations have ended.

On November 21 the meeting between the Gori Municipality board and the non-governmental organizations was the end of the “long holiday” which those two sides had taken. Governor Zaza Chochishvili said that he would finish the split between the Administrative Board and civil society which has existed since 2004.

The main problematic issue at the meeting was the disorganized transport system in the city and the whole district. Human Rights Center published information about eight Dutch buses which were sent to Gori from Tbilisi as a present. Several participants of the meeting expressed their discontent regarding the situation. They disliked the fact that the government assigns buses to the state Ltd disregarding the private businesses. More precisely, Mikheil Chitadze, representative of the “Gori Development Center”, stated that similar system brought the Soviet Union apart.

Chochishvili said that it is necessary that public transport served teachers and socially impoverished people at a discount. Local government views similar possibility only through the development of public transport.

Natia Kaliashvili, lawyer for the Human Rights Center, thinks that public transport should necessarily run in the city and it will not hinder the development of the private business.

“I cannot understand why the reinforcement of the public transport should be connected with the Soviet System. We do not discuss the monopolizing of the public transport that really existed during the Soviet Union. We appreciate the idea of the Municipality because it will provide the allowances for the pensioners, teachers and other socially impoverished people. The state will not order the business to serve those people for free,” said Kaliashvili.

They recalled 2004 when that time district governor Soso Mumladze and Gubernator Mikheil Kareli brought eight Dutch buses in the district. At that time the administration established a state enterprise “Goriavtotrans” with 100 % governmental share. Then the transportation fee was 20 tetri. In addition to that the drivers did not receive subsidies from the district budget their wages depended on daily income. In the spring of 2005 the drivers demanded to increase the transportation fee up to 50 tetri. However it contradicted to the state policy and the Deputy Governor Tamar Edisherashvili was obliged to find additional funds from the district budget for the “Goriavtotrasni”. Otherwise, drivers could not keep buses. The most curious fact was that buses appeared in the street when trains arrived at the Gori Railway Station and a lot of passengers needed the bus. Passengers did not buy tickets and it was impossible to check the total amount of the sold tickets.

Local government is about to foresee those details. The local people complain about the mini-buses too. A lot of mini-buses run in the city center the suburbs remain without their service. They work without any regulations. For example, mini-bus # 2 or other ones stay in front of the agricultural market until they get full.

Rezo Okruashvili, the chairman of the Gori Discussion Club, stated that the administrative board did not reply to the letter of his representative. Okruashvili requested to create a timetable for the public transport in the city. On November 16 their club has sent the letter on the issue to the Administrative Board and it was signed by Eka Kotolashvili. The head of the Municipality Administration, Aliaka Mariamidze said that the letter of Eka Kotolashvili, living in Tkviavi Street, was delivered at the Chancellery on November 16. Thus the estimated deadline for issuing public information was not finished yet by November 21. Rezo Okruashvili demanded the public information immediately. Alika Mariamidze said that the timetable for the transport movement is created b y those private companies which have license on transportation and own means of transportation.

The participants of the meeting agreed that the transport system should be seriously attended to. It will be nice to invite those people to the meetings who are responsible to resolve the problem. Those people are the heads or directors of the service centers or transport companies in the district.

Another important problem is pollution of the city. Tbilisi City Hall sent two garbage trucks to Gori district. The participants of the meeting discussed the transparency of the tender.

They recalled those faulty points of the city pollution which has worried Gori population for many years. Financial Police started the investigation of the financial situation in the District Municipality from the field. A week ago law enforcers released Marlen Nadiradze, former governor, from three-day-imprisonment.

Nadiradze signed a resolution in August of 2007 according to which all shops, supermarkets, offices, chemists; NGOs, etc were charged for 10-50 tetri for each sq. meters of their space for the cleaning of the city.  The Human Rights Center’s Gori Office protested the resolution when the draft project was introduced to the administrative board for discussion; however it turned out that the private entrepreneurs were made to pay the fees.

Gulchora Tskitishvili, the head of the individual enterprise in Chavchavadze Street 84, in Gori, said that two weeks ago people visited her from the Administrative Board and they made her pay the fee for three months.

Representatives of the NGOs are concerned about the method of gathering the fee.

“As far as we know one concrete firm, which has won the tender, cleans the city but the fees are collected by another one. The chaotic situation must be settled,” said Eka Jafiashvili, representative of the Urban Development Institute in Gori.

Jafiashvili appreciated the recent decision of the Municipality according to which the experienced company was put in charge to clean the city. Certain Alika Makrakhidze is the head of that company. Zhuzhuna Tsereteli, the head of the Society “Tanadgoma” did not like Makrakhidze’s involvement in the field. “Why should Alika Makrakhidze sweep the city all the time; maybe some other company will produce better project,” said Tsereteli. Chochishvili promised that next year they will fund only that company which will submit best project to the tender on cleaning the city.

 Saba Tsitsikashvili, Gori