Rustam Minnikhanov: “Elections are always a serious exam. There is much work to be done”
The outflow of population from rural areas, employment, demography, the construction of social facilities and the repair of roads — this is not the whole list of problematic topics raised at the 14th Congress of the Council of Municipalities of the Republic of Tatarstan on 19 December. At the same time, the meeting announced the achievements of the republic and the main results of the coming year by the end of 2019. Read the details in the material of Realnoe Vremya.
Working in rural areas
The 14th Congress of the Council of Municipalities of the Republic of Tatarstan Association took place in Korston shopping and entertainment complex in Kazan. The shopping and entertainment complex seemed crowded, which is not surprising — the meeting was attended by representatives of all 956 municipalities of Tatarstan.
Chairperson of the Council of Municipalities of the Republic of Tatarstan Ekzam Gubaydullin made a report on the work of the association to President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, State Counsellor Mintimer Shaimiev, as well as the participants. It should be noted that, in addition to listing the achievements of the republic, his report found a place for problematic issues.
“In recent years, thanks to the purposeful work to support rural areas, many issues have been resolved: rural areas have been gasified, schools, kindergartens, clubs have been built or overhauled, road construction is underway,” Ekzam Gubaydullin began. “At the same time, less than 50 people live in every fifth rural settlement today. I must say that the concentration of population around large cities and the creation of agglomerations is a global trend. This is all true, but rates of decline in rural settlements is a process with irreversible consequences.”
Continuing the topic, the speaker urged to pay attention to the creation of comfortable conditions for a young family — first of all, to provide housing: “Perhaps, land plots should be allocated on a free basis.”
“It is necessary to pay attention to the realization of opportunities to work in rural areas. To overcome the seasonality of employment, it is necessary to develop agricultural processing enterprises more actively. Also, given that almost 5,5 billion rubles are allocated for various programmes to support rural areas, it is necessary to provide maximum awareness in rural areas and local entrepreneurs on existing state programmes,” Chairperson of the Tatarstan Council of Municipalities addressed the audience.
Also, Ekzam Gubaydullin asked the heads of municipalities to complete the work on the transfer of information transfer on the state of the road network as soon as possible (how many dirt roads, how many asphalt and so on), in order to go to the Cabinet of Ministers with a proposal to increase funding for the maintenance of roads in 2020.
Children studying in the corridors
As part of the congress meeting, representatives of municipalities had the opportunity to tell from the podium about their successes, as well as to address to the head of the republic with a request for support.
For example, the head of the rural settlement of Sarsak-Omga (Agryz district of Tatarstan), Tamara Nikolaeva, told about the lack of a decent rural club and problems with the road surface.
“In Soviet times, we used to go to the club, which was a church, today we hold events in the club, which had been a kindergarten. Dear Rustam Nurgalievich, we hope that the republican programmes in the coming years will allow us to build a new modern club, as well as to asphalt the central street with a length of more than 2 km,” Tamara Nikolaeva spoke.
More programmes
Having listened to all the speakers, the president of the republic went up to the rostrum to sum up the results of the congress and the outgoing year 2019.
“The year 2019 has been quite successful for Tatarstan, progressive development continued. Certainly, this is the result of coordinated work and close cooperation between all levels of government. In this regard, I want to thank you for your hard work at the local level and your contribution to the development of the native land,” Rustam Minnikhanov addressed the audience.
The president noted that national projects are aimed at solving the problems of municipalities, as well as many issues are solved within the framework of republican programmes. As for the latter, at the moment there are 40 of them, and more than 40 billion rubles were allocated for their implementation.
“We will continue the implementation of republican programmes. Next year they will be even more — 50. So far, we plan to allocate about 55 billion rubles for these purposes,” the president of Tatarstan promised. “I am also informing you that we are embarking on a new programme: it is very expensive but extremely necessary — these are our hospital hospitals. It is planned to repair 103 objects within 5 years. This is also a large complex of works, which requires at least 19 billion rubles.”
Summing up the results of his speech, the head of the republic reminded the audience that “next year is extremely challenging”.
“Regional presidential election, the elections of deputies of local self-government are coming. Elections are always a serious examination. There is a lot of work to be done. The ultimate goal is to achieve a new level of consolidation of society and to enlist the convincing support of Tatarstan citizens,” Rustam Minnikhanov concluded.