President approves road map for addressing urgent social issues

In 2006 Belarus will continue tackling social issues and pursuing policy aimed at creating a country to benefit its citizens. One of the cornerstones here is an improved system of dealing with citizens’ appeals. The government had drawn up an appropriate plan of actions in this sphere which was approved by the president, the president’s press-service told BelTA. In 2005 following the president’s instruction, control over abidance by the laws connected with the system of dealing with citizens’ appeals was improved. Surveys held last year in Minsk and oblasts showed that the country managed to set up an up-to-date effective system of dealing with citizens’ appeals. At the same time, there are still cases of red tape and reluctant treatment of citizens’ appeals, breaching timelines and making unwarranted decisions. Most drawbacks occur at the initial level – rural, municipal and district executive committees and municipal organizations and generally is caused by low working discipline and mismanagement, the head of state was informed. The guilty have been given disciplinary punishments. But the emphasis has been placed on the search for ways to improve the situation and eradicate the prerequisites which ignite the problems. In particular, citizens’ appeals were analyzed, systematized and reported to the president in October 2005. Most problems stem from housing inconveniences which include costly construction and poorly motivated growth of prices at the secondary housing market, the fact that families with many children are not entitled to social housing, lack of housing for young specialists who are sent to rural areas after graduating educational establishments, low quality of communal services. In the social security sphere the problems include imperfect alimony system, insufficient social security for invalids from childhood, employment issues in sparsely populated areas located in the polluted zones. As for education, Belarusian citizens touch upon the issue of the absence of draft deferment for certain categories of residents. The population is concerned by high rates of the state due. The afore-mentioned problems are common for all the regions of Belarus and concern various strata of the population. In this respect the president gave an instruction that proposals to turn the situation around should be submitted to him in three months. These issues are pivotal, Alexander Lukashenko stressed. The government drew up a step-by-step plan of actions to improve the Belarusian legislation in this field. Appropriate governmental bodies have been appointed to supervise the actions and implement the ideas. The problem of costly construction and poorly motivated growth of prices at the secondary housing market was addressed by relieving citizens from payment for creating the social infrastructure in the neighborhood, engineering and transport communications. The plan of actions includes improvements in the sphere of holding auctions and tenders in the field of construction and trimming the amount of documentation. It is planned to draw up a law to assign housing for orphans and children abandoned by their parents. To tackle the issues of the lack of social housing for families with many children, it is provisioned to define the earnings of the citizens entitled to this privilege (including families with many children) and allocation of additional funds to build social housing for such categories of citizens. To have specialists sent to rural areas after graduating educational establishments stay there, it is planned to assign working facilities to them. Besides, additional funds will be earmarked to finance construction of housing in rural areas for such people. Amendments are expected to be introduced into legal standard acts to improve the order of granting benefits on housing construction to servicemen. The main tool to tackle low quality of construction works performed by contractors as well as utility services should be a program of the development of the municipal branch of the Republic of Belarus for 2006-2010. The deadline for drafting the program is April. The first quarter should see a draft state program for water supply “Pure water” for 2006-2010. Its implementation will lift the problem of supplying rural areas with drinking water. As far as the social security concerns, children’s benefits will be elevated. First, the differentiation of benefits for working and nonworking women will be renounced. Second, starting from January 1, 2008 children’s benefits will go up to the level of 80 per cent of the subsistent wage, on January 1, 2009 they will reach 100 per cent of the subsistent wage. Special care will be taken of orphans and children left without parent’s care. Several measures are planned to be taken to cut unemployment. The amendments to the legislation will encourage the jobless living in the areas with high unemployment rates to engage in entrepreneurial activities. Social, labour and household problems of residents of contaminated regions will be in the spotlight too. The community development projects include establishment of new social services, construction and repair of roads, water and electric power supply, installation of landlines. In order to tackle alcohol abuse the draft state program on prevention of alcoholism for 2006-2010 envisages toughening of control over alcohol-dependant families, rendering necessarily medical and physiological assistance to alcohol-prone persons. Several amendments are expected to be introduced into the standard acts on forced medical treatment of teenagers abusing drugs and alcohol. To simplify the order of registration of startup companies with the state one-stop agencies will be introduced. The president approved the proposals and emphasized that the most urgent social issues should be solved in the first quarter of 2006. The State Control Committee was vested with the responsibility to control the implementation of the action plan and report to the president about the progress in April and July.