The Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) will have to change its decision by which the victims of political repression were removed from the list of persons who travel gratis by public transport. Contacted by IPN, Valentina Sturza, president of the Association of Former Deportees and Political Prisoners of Moldova, said the CMC misunderstood the Court of Auditors’ decision based on which these changes were made. As a result of this misunderstanding, the victims of political repression weren’t nominally included in the list of persons who travel by transport public free of charge this year.
“The CMC will have to change its decision so that these persons are included,” stated Valentina Sturza. According to her, a letter of the Court of Auditors, recommending changing its December 26, 2019 decision, will arrive at the CMC on February 3. The victims of political repression travel based on permits that enable them to enjoy concessions on all the public utilities, social services and public transport. The Association of Former Deportees and Political Prisoners has a membership of 1,740.
Contacted by IPN for comments, Adrian Talmaci, secretary general of the Chisinau Municipal Council, said that after the CMC took a relevant decision last December, the victims of political repression travel free by public transport, but are classed into a different category of people who benefit from concessions. The CMC decision was taken based on a decision by which the Court of Auditors recommends the Council to review the categories of people who enjoy concessions and travel free by public transport and to include only the categories set by law in the CMC decision. And the CMC did so.
“The second moment is that according to our analysis, all the persons who are victims of political repression are older than 63-64 and are pensioners. This means that they benefit from travel compensations or free season tickets. So, it is not right to say that they do not benefit from free trips. They do so, but as a separate category, as simple pensioners,” stated Adrian Talmaci.
The subject was brought into focus by Liberal Chisinau councilor Veronica Herța. In a post on Facebook, she said the Liberal Party will propose a draft decision by which the victims of political repression will be re-included in the list of categories of persons who travel gratis by public transport.
According to the head of the Chisinau Electric Transport Company Dorin Chernyi, 11 categories of people travel free by public transport as of January 1 this year, as opposed to 14 categories earlier.
