Hospital workers in Chechnya get hens as part of salary

Employees of one of Grozny hospitals complain that they are forced to take hens produced by the "Tsentaroy" Poultry Farm, located in the family village of Chechen President - Khosi-Yurt (Tsentaroy), Kurchaloi District, as part of their salaries.

A woman from Grozny, who is working for City Hospital No. 9, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that half of her monthly salary was paid in hens produced by the above poultry farm. Other employees of the hospital faced the same situation. According to source, the switch to paying wages "in kind" disturbed many workers of the state hospital, but nobody dares criticize their bosses.

"My salary is small without that - some six thousand roubles (about 200 US dollars, - comment of the editor); <…> while my monthly communal bills make about two thousand roubles, what do I need these hens for? It's just the uttermost arbitrariness and mockery at people. I'd like to know, whether President Ramzan Kadyrov knows about it, or this is a sort of 'local initiative', by which local bosses try to please their leader," the lady from the hospital has added.

An official of the Ministry of Public Health of Chechnya failed to confirm or refute the fact of such practice of paying salary in kind to medical workers.

Residents of Chechnya also report that in some villages local authorities now demand tax on domestic animals. According to peasants, local officials assert that the new tax was introduced personally by President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov.

However, a source from the local Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Development said in his comment to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that he saw no official document regulating taxation of livestock and poultry and assumed that it could be "an initiative of local bureaucrats."

The Chechen leadership also plans to force the population to pay 100 percent for housing and communal services by the end of this year. A range of tough measures will be taken, including sacking those who have debts for gas and electricity, and cutting off these facilities from fraudulent debtors.