Wildfire victims in the Vladimir Region have refused to move into the "shacks" which were built for them.
Yesterday, residents of the Vladimir Region's Melenkov District, whose homes were destroyed by a forest fire this summer, complained to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin about local authorities and accused them of openly trying to double-cross them.
The appeal's authors said "shacks" were being built instead of the promised "homes with an equally large area." The regional administration said the letter was "yet another attempt to discredit local authorities." The Russian Public Chamber promised to check the facts listed in the document.
The appeal's authors claim they are now living in a local school and are looking forward to a housewarming party, but that local authorities are openly trying to double-cross them. "We were forced to sign standard agreements saying nothing about the floor space of new homes or construction category. We were offered no alternatives, including the payment of compensations, secondary-market housing purchases and individual construction, etc.," the letter reads in part.
On July 30, Vladimir Putin promised that the federal budget would allocate funding for rebuilding homes destroyed by the blaze. He said each household would receive an average of three million roubles. Many wildfire victims subsequently complained that they were being forced to renounce compensations in favour of building new homes.
Local wildfire victims are outraged over proposed per-capita floor space, namely, 33 square metres per one person, 42 sq. m. per two persons and 18 sq. m. per person in households comprising three members and more. "The boxes into which they are trying to resettle us bear no resemblance to a peasant house. Sorry, but we won't agree to move into these shacks," the residents of destroyed villages said.
Governor Nikolai Vinogradov has already been informed about the complaint, the regional administration told the paper. Larisa Mikheyeva, director of the regional administration's public relations department, said she doubted whether the complainers were all fire victims, and added that the letter was yet another attempt to discredit regional authorities.
"Individuals who have lost their homes will receive new ones with all the amenities which were previously lacking," Mikheyeva said.
In effect, a real gated community with a gas pipeline and the required infrastructure is now under construction in Ivatino village in the Melenkov District, she added.
The regional administration said the new homes will have a floor space of 34-110 square metres each, and that each household will also receive 1,200-sq. m. land plots. Only 12 families have refused to move into the new homes. Maximum compensations for lost homes totaled 900,000 roubles.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was touring Russia's Far East, and his reaction to the letter is not known due to the time lag. "I have recently visited the Vladimir Region but heard no such complaints, although I had directly talked to the people without any regional officials," Yelena Topoleva, member of the Russian Public Chamber, told the paper. "This is probably some misunderstanding. We should check this report," said Svetlana Zavorotneva, another Public Chamber member.
Vladimir Kiselyov, Speaker of the Vladimir Region's Legislative Assembly, said local authorities were the only ones to calculate compensations for destroyed homes using housing wear-and-tear coefficients, and that it was impossible to buy any housing for such allocations.
Legislative Assembly deputies have already asked the regional administration to abolish these coefficients and to pay wildfire victims the same amounts as for new housing. The regional administration said substantial allocations will be required for this purpose. The meager 217 million roubles worth of federal-budget funding, which has so far been received, will be used to build new homes.
By Leonid Novikov and Alexander Chernykh