PM: Residents of Sanatorium ‘Kartli’ Will Receive New Housing Unconditionally by End of the Year
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Zurab Azarashvili, the new Minister of IDPs from the Occupied Territories, Labor, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia has instructed the agency which developed a plan and offered them two ways, first — IDP families can find an apartment in Tbilisi themselves, and in this case, the price per square meter will be the equivalent of $550, which will be purchased by the agency, and second — IDP families also have an alternative to wait for the construction of the apartments purchased for them to be completed, and in this case, the agency offers to provide them with rent. PM Irakli Gharibashvili informed of this initiative at yesterday’s government session, referring to the problem of IDP families living in the sanatorium ‘Kartli’.
According to Gharibashvili, most importantly, the Minister promised the families living in the sanatorium ‘Kartli’ that the families will receive new housing unconditionally by the end of this year. At the same time, the PM once again reminded the population about the situation in the country before 2012 in terms of IDP issues.
“Until 2012, the issue of resettlement of IDPs was chaotic, the main direction of resettlement was the legalization of the so-called ‘occupied areas by IDPs’ and rehabilitation of state-owned facilities. There was no single standard governing resettlement policy. When considering the issue of accommodation, no substantial attention was paid to the number of family members, there were cases when the family, even against their will, was given 9-10 sq.m.” PM recalled.
According to him, since GD governance, various accommodation programs, alternatives, have been launched in stages: purchasing apartments for IDP families in newly built buildings intensively and actively from October 1, 2012; rural house program, in which the IDP family chooses and represents the house to be purchased in the agency; large-scale construction to provide housing for IDP families; 27,000 IDP families were provided with housing in newly built buildings.
Minister said that they have already selected state-owned lands for IDPs in the most critical situation in Tbilisi, Rustavi, Kutaisi, and various other cities. The process of transferring these lands to the municipalities and the Property Management Agency is underway. According to him, in parallel, negotiations are underway with various construction companies to start construction on these lands.
Zurab Azarashvili also focused on the issues of IDPs living in the sanatorium ‘Kartli’ and noted that the Ministry is actively negotiating to accommodate them in the ongoing construction.
Besides that, PM opened the first session of the competition commissions for the selection of the Head of the Special Investigation Service and the Head of the Personal Data Protection Service, at the Government Administration yesterday.
The members of the commission elected the head of the government administration Ilia Darchiashvili as the chairman of the competition commissions on the basis of voting.
According to Order #12 of the PM, the competition commission for the selection of the head of the Special Investigation Service also includes: Mikheil Sarjveladze — Chairman of the Committee on Human Rights and Civil Integration of the Parliament of Georgia; Anri Okhanashvili — Chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee; Giorgi Mikautadze - Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court of Georgia; Bakur Abuladze — First Deputy Prosecutor General of Georgia; Giorgi Burjanadze - Deputy Public Defender of Georgia;
The Competition Commission for the Selection of the Head of the Personal Data Protection Service has the same composition, only including Karlo Nikoleishvili — NNLE — Chairman of the Board of Rights Georgia.
Among the criteria to be followed by the commissions is at least 5 years of experience working in the system of the judiciary or law enforcement agencies or in the field of human rights. As a result of the competitions, not less than 2 and not more than 5 candidates will be selected for each position. The PM will nominate 2-2 candidates for each position to be elected to the Parliament of Georgia from the selected candidates.
The Georgian government adopted the bill replacing the State Inspector’s Service, which investigated alleged offenses committed by state officials and law enforcement agencies, with the Special Investigation Service and Personal Data Protection Service on December 30.
