Two Ladies Announce Hunger-Strike In Homel Due To Communal Services’ Inaction

The Homel residents have exhausted all possible resources to solve the housing problems that the authorities created for them.

On May 24, the residents of Homel, 33-year-old Alena Hrynko and 48-year-old Aksana Filipenka announced an indefinite hunger strike. The women filed the corresponding statement to the administration of the Navabelitski district of the city, Radio Liberty reports.

"We have already exhausted all possible resources to solve the housing problems that the Homel authorities created for us. We met with the "mayor", and the "governor", and the assistant to Lukashenka in the Homel region - no result ", - the ladies write in their statement.

According to the hunger-strikers, the residents of the house # 14 of the Urytski Street appeared in a dangerous situation. The house has not been renovated since its construction in 1967. The housing and communal service replaced the electrical wiring without a technical project. Electricity periodically disappears. The people are afraid of a fire, similar to the one that happened in the "Winter Cherry" center in the Russian city of Kemerovo. The house #14 previously belonged to the railway. 90 percent of the apartments in it are privatized.

Having acquired this house into the city's communal property, the authorities made it a dormitory. Privatized apartment Helen Grinko The district administration, through the court, left the provatized apartment belonging to Alena Hrynko without a kitchen, a bath, a toilet; and demands that the owner should now buy it all for Bn 18.7K. Herein, the young family has two disabled persons living in the apartment - Alena’s son and elderly mother.

The residents of the house can not conclude direct contracts with energy specialists to provide their apartments with electricity, as the district communal enterprise did it on its behalf, allegedly for the entire hostel.

The hunger-strikers believe that in this way, corruption schemes are implemented to replenish the income of the officials of the public utilities, as well as enrichment at the expense of the residents, and meanwhile the house remained without proper repair for half a century.

Aksana Filipenka has said that she and Alena Hrynko are seeking a personal meeting with Lukashenka.