Another revolt may be in Zagatala region

In Zagatala region, where there was a six-magnitude  earthquake in  May 2012, the population is  discontent with inactivity of the authorities in the aftermath of the disaster, azdliqnews.tv reported.

In recent days, a number of villages  appealed to the local authorities for expressing dissatisfaction with unfair distribution of state aid.

Unrest provoked inappropriate actions  of the Ministry for Emergency Situations (MES)  which began to  issue  compensation from 1000 to 4000 AZN for damages. But previously  it was planned to build for this category   of people  or to  repair  the affected homes. At the same time, many people  are not given receipts for compensation.

After the earthquake, the government and President Ilham Aliyev promised to pay damages to all citizens by the end of 2012. In June, it has been allocated 320 million manat to build 3,500 houses, 35 schools, and repairing thousands of homes. However, these promises have not been fulfilled.

In November, the headquarters of the civil society "Kura" monitored the quake zone, which showed growth of a crisis due to large-scale embezzlement, corruption and abuse of MES and representatives of local authorities.

At the request of staff "Kura" in late November, the MES stated officially that already 72% of the funds  have been disbursed, and the work has been  performed only by 22%. The ministry cannot answer where  are the 50% of the  funds.

After a monitoring headquarters informed the public and government agencies about the misuse of funds. At a press conference on November 23 Staff Coordinator  of "Kura",  Oktay Gyulalyev, reported that about 130 million manta were misused - houses for the officials of the Presidential Administration and the Ministry of Emergency Situations and their families in Gabala, Ismailli and Lankaran regions were build with the funds.

On 7 January the head of the  MES, Kamaladdin Heydarov, claimed  allegedly that  2984 houses and 22 schools were built. The MES does not want to name the owners of these homes and addresses of schools.

According to the headquarters, no more than 600-700 houses have been built, and nearly all the funds allocated to the earthquake zone, have already been squandered.

The critical situation in the neighboring Balakan region, in  which 2,500 homes  were damaged after the second earthquake of September.

MES states about the necessity of building 1,500 houses, but no construction works are carried out there.

The same situation  is in the Zagatala-Balakan area, in the Kura Valley, where, after severe flooding in May 2010 the government allocated 460 million manat, most of which were stolen. It caused repeated protests of the local population, and in response, the authorities started repressions against local activists and members of the "Kura" staff.—0—