Salihorsk residents protest against illegal construction

The illegal construction of a road through yards provoked discontent among the locals.

Officials from the district executive committee and the capital construction department rushed to placate people, Viasna human rights centre reports.

Dwellers of apartment block at 53 Zaslonau Street held a meeting on Monday, August 4. The meeting was initiated by activists of the local campaign “Protect Forest” who have been struggling for the constitutional right of urban residents to favourable environment.

“The matter is that design engineers made a big mistake. As a result, legal construction standards were violated. They made it allegedly on the request of the traffic police to reduce traffic in the neighbouring street. They decided to do it at the cost of safety and health of dwellers of this apartment block,” Uladzimir Shyla, the initiator of the meeting, says. “We prepared our reasonable claims to the authorities and expressed them at the meeting. It's worth noting that the locals already made a collective appeal and met with officials. But it didn't attract many people.”

The city' chief architect Sviatlana Kruhlova, deputy head of the district executive committee for urban planning Anatoli Dalhavets and head of the Salihorsk capital construction department Yury Chukhrou attended the meeting and said the construction of the road through the yards would be suspended and a zone for a playground would be extended. The officials promised to consider other claims in the near future and give an official answer.