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Baranavichy Residents: We Will Hold Demonstration If Needed

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Baranavichy Residents: We Will Hold Demonstration If Needed
PHOTO: NATALLIA SALAMIANKA

The residents of the high-raise buildings protest against the construction of a new tower-block instead of the playground in their yard.

The public discussion of the plan of the Military community development finished over a month ago, but passions in the neighbourhood still run high. The residents of several tower-blocks protest against the construction of another high-raise residential building in the yard, which would replace the playground, intex-press.by writes.

They account for more than 400 votes out of 607, that came to the Baranavichy district executive committee during the public discussion.

– This playground gathers kids not only from our yard, the whole neighbourhood comes here to play, – Andrei Viktarau, who grew up in this neighbourhood, says. – My children often come here to visit Grandma and Grandpa. This playground is their favourite place to have fun.

Andrei Viktarau told that the residents of the yard participated in the public discussion and they were told that the detailed plan of the development of the Military community provides for placing “sufficient amount” of playgrounds in the district. However, the city dwellers remain dissatisfied with such alternative to the current development of their yard. According to the new plan, the projected playground will be much smaller. Apart from that, it is going to be built at the site, which, according to the locals, is “always in a draught”.

– An adult can’t spend 10 minutes there without any consequences for the health, let alone children, – Hanna Kukushkina, the inhabitant of a residential buiding in Ardzhanikidze street, 16, says.

The threat to lose the playgroud, loved by many, is not the only thing which worries the residents of the yard. They are also concerned that the number of cars parked in the yard will significantly grow after the construction of a new building here.

– It has been a problem for us already, – Hanna Kukushkina says. – In the evening, so many cars gather here that sometimes an ambulance cannot make its way to the entrance. What is going to happen when the new tower-block is built?

The people are even more outraged about the fact that all their efforts to influence the destiny of the neighbourhood are in vain.

– Not only we found out about the public discussion by mere chance, there were no ads in the neighbourhood. Our active participation in the discussion brought no results. The officials published their decision without leaving the office, that’s all the cooperation, – another resident of the yard Sviatlana Sidarenka angrily says.

Nevertheless, the meeting of the outraged inhabitants of the Military community with the representatives of the authorities will happen. Deputy Chairman of architecture and municipal development administration of Baranavichy city executive committee Aleh Yauseyeu informed this.

– The people’s worries are understandable. However, the detailed plan is elaborated to solve the existing problems, not just to refrain from causing new ones, in the Military community, – Aleh Yauseyeu noted. – The fact that there’s a house in this yard in the plan doesn’t mean it will be actually built. Now the people are worried about the lack of parking places – their number will be increased. Playgrounds will be built in the amount necessary to meet the neighbourhood’s needs. No developer can win a tender without having provided a project which would satisfy the residents of the neighbourhood.

The meeting between the residents of the Military community and the representatives of the authorities is scheduled on May 25. The people are determined to stand for their rights and to achieve making changes in the detailed plan.

– We really hope they will hear us, – Hanna Kukushkina says.– If not, we are going to continue the struggle. Few of us believe we can make it work, but we will not retrieve. If needed, we will apply for holding a demonstration. We will defend the playground for our kids!

In Belarus, there are not too many examples of when people managed to defend their position in the fight against the state machine. One of them is termination of the business center construction near the burial site of the victims of Stalin repression in the Kurapaty stove near Minsk.

Zmitser Dashkevich, one of the active participants of the protest action against the construction, leader of the organization "Young Front", is convinced that it is vital that people fight and resolutely defend their rights together.

- Joint struggle unites people, there appears a goal that is easier to achieve all together. Legally, the whole system is built in such a way that talking with officials in the offices is unlikely to give the desired result, - Zmitser Dashkevich says. - The problem is that any official of any level in our country is not responsible to people, but to their superiors, to the regime that appointed them at this post. Unfortunately, now, as long as people do not throw themselves under the technical equipment, it is almost impossible to achieve the wished-for result.

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