Residents of Pyatigorsk have managed to suspend construction in Komsomolsk park

The protests of Pyatigorsk (Stavropol region) residents on the issue of city construction have resulted in the creation of a city duma commission on monitoring the construction development of the resort city, which is going to exercise its powers until the Pyatigorsk general plan has been approved. This information has been provided to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent at the Pyatigorsk public reception office of Vladimir Katrenko, RF State Duma deputy.

As is known from earlier reports, several organized actions of the city residents have been held this month in Pyatigorsk. People are indignant at the city development policy of the resort city administration. The last action of the protest committee on June 19 which grew into a forty-minute block of the traffic at the Kalinin Avenue, the central city thoroughfare, made Pavel Mineev, the acting city mayor, start negotiations with the picketers. Notably, the organizers of the action were activists of the CPRF city committee, and the manifestation was directed against construction development at one of the Pyatigorsk parks.

Galina Sushko, leader of Pyatigorsk communists, says that an address of Pyatigorsk residents has been submitted to the city duma, dealing with the issue of allocation to developers of a land plot for construction in the Komsomolsk park. The petition is signed by five thousand people. It runs that in the "Belaya Romashka" district on the park territory a regional memorial to young communist league members of the 1920s, built in 1968, is located. The adjoining park territory is a recreation zone for Pyatigorsk residents, and it is prohibited to build permanent structures there, while only knock-down cafes with open summer verandas may be built. Meanwhile, Pavel Mineev, acting head of Pyatigorsk administration, has signed a permit for the construction by a commercial entity of a sports and recreation centre with a set of cafes and entertainments in Komsololsk park. The state environment expert commission was considering the park reconstruction at the time when the city administration in effect approved new construction on the public and recreation territory, claim Pyatigorsk residents. In addition, they state in their petition that the assertion on having taken into account the public opinion while approving the allocation of a land plot in the Komsomolsk park of Pyatigorsk raises doubts. In their petition they demand that an independent commission should be formed to study the public opinion, check the facts of construction, issue of construction permits and allocation of land plots for ownership or rent by the city administration during the period from August 2005 up to June of the current year. Until the commission completes its work, the Mineev's resolutions on allocation of land plots for construction and issue of permits for construction in the Komsomolsk part of Pyatigorsk, in the "Beshtau" district on the western slope of the Mashuk mountain and in other disputable hot spots of the resort city construction must be suspended.

As a result of such actions and petitions, Irina Kudrina, chairperson of the RF State Duma environment commission, has come to the region and had a number of meetings with the city residents and Pyatigorsk administration. Tonight she is going to hold a final meeting attended by representatives of public and political movements and the city leadership. On June 21, the Pyatigorsk city duma took a decision to form a commission on monitoring construction in Pyatigorsk. It is assumed that the commission will act until the Pyatigorsk general plan has been approved. Additionally, the city administration has adopted a decision to suspend its permit for the constriction in the Komsomolsk park. However, as Galina Sushko, leader of the protest committee, explains, the city residents are not going to stop there. They are preparing documents to file in court which, for sure, will dot all the i's in this complicated case.