Victims of flood in Azerbaijan can no longer wait for promised compensation

PanARMENIAN.Net - On Saturday March 12, over two hundred residents of Saatli region blocked a road in the central part of the region demanding to compensate the damage caused to them during a flood in the spring of 2010. Residents of the villages of Dehler, Musalem, and Abasbeyli participated in the rally. They have not received compensation even nine months later.

According to the order N197 of the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers, the victims of the flood were to receive compensation for damaged farms and one-time financial assistance.

Police forces quickly unblocked the road. The head of the regional center of Saatli Siragaddin Jabbarov arrived to the pace and offered to continue the meeting in the village of Abasbeyli. In an hour he meeting of the head of the region and the protesters resumed. He promised to start paying one-time compensation – 300 AZN per person and 250 manat per one hectare of land for spring agricultural activities. Soon the commission will arrive to the region to determine the damage to the farms and infrastructure.

This is the second action of protest in the region over the past 15 days. Residents of several villages of Sabirabad region held a rally on February 24, and only after the rally they authorities started paying compensation, and began restoration of infrastructure.

As a result of floods last spring in the Kura plain more than 100 thousand hectares and 20 thousand homes were flooded. The government has allocated 300 million manat to eliminate the consequences of floods, but the works were fulfilled only partially. The fate of the allocated funds remains unclear, contact.az reported.