/ world today news/ “In the budget of the Metropolitan Municipality for 2018, there is a minimal increase in municipal participation in each of the activities, but in general we can say that this is another budget that will not solve any of the capital’s problems. This was said by the leader of the BSP-Sofia and chairman of the group of municipal councilors from the BSP in SOS, Kaloyan Pargov, during a seminar on the topic “2018 Capital Municipality Budget Project”.
“The budget is bigger than last year and the reason for that is the higher transfers due to the increase in the minimum wage and the insurance thresholds,” he said. “Tell me – will the transport be fixed? The public works, especially in the outer districts , will it be resolved? Will we rehabilitate all schools and kindergartens, since education is a priority for another year?” asked Kaloyan Pargov.
“We have a financial framework from which the people of Sofia will not feel effective, as we from the BSP insist,” said the leader of the capital’s socialists. “To this end, there should be program policies based on prior agreement and discussion, as we requested this year from the rulers”, pointed out Kaloyan Pargov. “However, it was obviously a sham because the ad hoc committee did not start working earlier so that we could discuss the specific issues and directions. It was “dust in the eyes” of the opposition, he added.
“Within this budget, I do not expect any qualitative change in the development of Sofia, apart from the fact that we will get closer to the third metro diameter, for which more than BGN 300 million from European funds have been invested. Our criticisms are constructive, not just because we are from the BSP,” said Pargov.
“We can tell the people of Sofia, especially those in the outer districts, where 2/3 of the population lives, that they will continue to tread in mud and fall into holes. Their children will continue to play in unsecured sandpits and kindergartens, or there will be none at all,” Kaloyan Pargov pointed out.
“The only place where we will be able to feel European again will be the ideal center. Although it also suffers from a lot of problems, especially the lack of a good transport and communication scheme and buffer parking to take cars out of the center and make people walk or cycle,” he explained.
“We don’t see the targeted policies to fight dirty air in the budget, although we will adopt a program soon,” he said.
“I don’t see the pre-election promise that Yordanka Fandakova made to us socialists in 2015, that she would pay more attention to the outer neighborhoods and small neighborhood streets, not only to the main arteries,” said the BSP-Sofia leader.
“In the cleanliness program that we will adopt, we see for another year that from the unfair garbage tax, which is a second property tax, more will be collected than spent. There is no answer as to where exactly this remainder goes, which reaches 15-20 million BGN,” Kaloyan Pargov also said.
#Kaloyan #Pargov #Budget #Metropolitan #Municipality #qualitative #change #development #Sofia
