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BACK TO 100 DRAMS: YEREVAN MAYOR SUSPENDS HIS DECISION ON BUS FARE RISE
[ Part 2.2: "Attached Text" ]
http://armenianow.com/news/48035/armenia_mayor_taron_margaryan_public_transport_far e
NEWS | 25.07.13 | 19:58
Photo: www.yerevan.am
Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan has suspended his decision to raise
public transport fares until mechanisms are developed to ensure that
it does not hit the poor.
In an address to the public issued on Thursday in response to
continuing public protest against the 50-percent rise in minibus and
bus fares Margaryan described the unpopular measure as beneficial
for Yerevan in the long term, but acknowledged that its introduction
did not take into account the interests of the socially vulnerable
sections of the population.
Margaryan, who promised in late March, shortly before the municipal
elections in which he was reelected mayor that transport fares would
not go up in the near future, said that until early summer he frankly
believed that the existing tariffs could be maintained for a few
years, but price increases in some immediately related markets,
according to him, make it impossible to continue improvements -
even cosmetic ones - in the sphere without raising fares.
"On the one hand, there was the issue of organizing a safe and
dignified transportation of people, on the other hand there was the
heavier financial burden for our citizens," he said.
"The fare of 150 drams is the price of solving these problems that,
unfortunately, we have to pay. We simply have no alternative,"
he added.
"At the same time, it is obvious that within the context of the
principles that we have adopted we cannot put the burden of higher
fare rates on socially vulnerable groups for which we have envisioned
privileged approaches within the framework of the establishment of a
unified system of payments," said Margaryan. "The establishment of
the system will take about a year, meanwhile the decision that has
been made puts this load on pensioners, students, socially vulnerable
people already today. I have already instructed that a commission
comprised of specialists and interested persons be set up to elaborate
all those mechanisms... In the meantime, the effect of the decision
will be suspended by me."
[ Part 2.2: "Attached Text" ]
http://armenianow.com/news/48035/armenia_mayor_taron_margaryan_public_transport_far e
NEWS | 25.07.13 | 19:58
Photo: www.yerevan.am
Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan has suspended his decision to raise
public transport fares until mechanisms are developed to ensure that
it does not hit the poor.
In an address to the public issued on Thursday in response to
continuing public protest against the 50-percent rise in minibus and
bus fares Margaryan described the unpopular measure as beneficial
for Yerevan in the long term, but acknowledged that its introduction
did not take into account the interests of the socially vulnerable
sections of the population.
Margaryan, who promised in late March, shortly before the municipal
elections in which he was reelected mayor that transport fares would
not go up in the near future, said that until early summer he frankly
believed that the existing tariffs could be maintained for a few
years, but price increases in some immediately related markets,
according to him, make it impossible to continue improvements -
even cosmetic ones - in the sphere without raising fares.
"On the one hand, there was the issue of organizing a safe and
dignified transportation of people, on the other hand there was the
heavier financial burden for our citizens," he said.
"The fare of 150 drams is the price of solving these problems that,
unfortunately, we have to pay. We simply have no alternative,"
he added.
"At the same time, it is obvious that within the context of the
principles that we have adopted we cannot put the burden of higher
fare rates on socially vulnerable groups for which we have envisioned
privileged approaches within the framework of the establishment of a
unified system of payments," said Margaryan. "The establishment of
the system will take about a year, meanwhile the decision that has
been made puts this load on pensioners, students, socially vulnerable
people already today. I have already instructed that a commission
comprised of specialists and interested persons be set up to elaborate
all those mechanisms... In the meantime, the effect of the decision
will be suspended by me."