As they promised, the pensioners resumed the protests on Tuesday despite rain. Earlier, they protested only in front of the Chisinau City Hall, but today they intend to go also to the Parliament and the Government. In the afternoon, they will lodge a complaint with the Prosecutor General's Office, Info-Prim Neo reports.
“We took to the streets again to defend our rights, even if we are sick and needy. We are victims of corruption. Stop the genocide of pensioners,” NGO “Salvgardare” head Maia Laguta, who organized the protests, demanded from the microphone.
The pensioners who are not from Chisinau disapprove of the protests staged in the capital city. “I live in the village and I think the decisions to raise the water and sewerage charges was right. Voronin had to raise the pensions one year ago. He made our lives miserable. The trolleybus fare of 2 lei is normal. I pay for trips when I travel by public units of transport in Chisinau. The living conditions here are better. The pensioners rent our rooms and have larger pensions. The City Hall provides compensations of 70 lei for trips to them. In rural areas, nobody gives you anything - 1 leu for 1 kilogram of grapes, though the farmers work very hard,” a man from Straseni district complained.
“The police should come with cars and take all these pensioners who have no other things to do to Glodeni to dig out sugar beet. They should see how the money is made, how we carry water from wells that are far away from the home. We do not have at least cold water in the house. We do not have artesian wells. In Chisinau they pay only 3 lei for a tonne of water and 2 lei for a trip by trolleybus. We pay much more,” said a resident of Glodeni district.
The pensioners in Chisinau complain that they have small pensions and cannot pay for public utilities, food and medicines if they are not supported. They demand that the water charge be decreased and that they be again included in the list of persons who travel by public means of transport free of charge.