Chechen authorities give residents a month to repay debts for housing and utilities services

Until January 17, 2016, Chechen residents must fully repay their debts for electricity, gas and water for 2015, the head of the republic Ramzan Kadyrov has declared. The authorities of Chechnya have an agreement with the federal centre that in case of successful repayment of the debts for 2015, the centre will write off the republic's debt of 24 billion roubles accrued over the past years, said a source from the republic's Ministry of Housing and Utilities.

"Only in the last few days, as a result of the checks, over 500 consumers were deprived of further provision of utilities," said the source from the above Ministry.

He said that in 2015 the Chechnya's debt for electricity only amounted to about one billion roubles. The total 2015 debt of the region for gas and electricity made another billion roubles.

The checks aimed to collect payments for utilities involve personally the Grozny Mayor Muslim Khuchiev and the head of the city police division Abusheikh Vismuradov, told the townspeople.

The participation of the Mayor in the checks is a response to Kadyrov's demand to repay the debts on time, said a resident of Grozny Lecha, who worked in one of the republic's ministries.

There were no complaints from residents of apartment buildings on massive disconnections of power, said a source from the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.