Press Review 08/26/2016

Construction work in the capital, poor treatment of banks with their customers, and the problems of student dormitories and kindergartens are the leading topics of today's press.

The official newspaper Azerbaijan published an article Implementation of Social Projects Continues, where it is said about the new look of the former Soviet Street.

The first stage of works on 26 hectares is the construction of roads and gardening. Gardening will be carried out on 23 hectares and road construction will cover 3 hectares. The author recalls the allocation of AZN 5 million by the Head of State for this purpose.

Azadlig disseminated information from the lawyer Akram Hasanov about a man who wanted to sell his kidney to repay the debt in Uni Bank. The lawyer reports about the bank’s behavior in this situation. The unemployed 38-year-old Mubariz Bayramov had a debt of about $ 3,000 to the bank. The bank offered him to sell a kidney to pay back the loan. However Bayramov applied to the Anti Collector and the question gained public notoriety.

On August 25 the Narimanov Court arrested Bayramov for 5 days for the debt. Attending the court, a representative of Uni Bank demanded Bayramov’s punishment. The lawyer Akram Hasanov says an arrest can take place only if the debt is not repaid for an invalid reason. In other words, it is so if the debtor has the money, but does not pay.

The arrest for debt contradicts the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as the European Convention on Human Rights.

Echo published an article titled Student Hostels Unavailable Again, which says that in Azerbaijan virtually every newcomer student is forced to rent an apartment, which is not cheap, and students therefore look for companions.

At the time, student dormitories were inhabited by refugees, but now many of them have been freed and it is not clear why they are not returned to students.

By the way, the payment for accommodation in student dormitories has increased. The average cost is 200 manats per person for a room, 400 manats for two rooms and 500-600 manats for three rooms. This is despite the fact that the cost of housing rental steadily falls in Azerbaijan.

The Executive Director of the Public Association Property Market Participants Ramil Osmanli told Radio Azadlig the apartment rental market survives almost entirely due to guest students. The expert believes that in order to better solve the problem the government should work with entrepreneurs. In some European countries, entrepreneurs build hostels and give them to students at low rates. This practice in our country would make the life of students much easier.

Bizim Yol investigates the issue of kindergartens. From the first steps parents learn from the directors there are no places in their kindergartens. Then the parents have to give a bribe so that their children could go to the kindergarten. The lack of pre-school education in the country is 75.5%.

According to the parent Natavan Suleymanova, bringing a child to a state-run kindergarten requires a bribe of 300-500 manats. The monthly payment is 20 manats, but the level of child care leaves much to be desired.

In private kindergartens the payment starts from 600-700 manats or more, and most parents cannot afford that.