Home construction program requires careful examination of disaster zone: Armenian NGO

Armenian authorities were not prepared for the process of building homes and allocating them, Vahan Tumasyan, the president of the non-governmental organization Shirak Center, told a news conference today, pointing to the importance of conducting studies in the disaster zone before launching a project of building homes.

"All the activities accomplished under the Lincy Foundation's program until 2003-2004 were thought to be enough, but it's good if the project continues," he said.

As a positive sign, he mentioned that all the temporary shelters located in the centre of Gyumri have been removed. He added, however, that all the construction activities should have focused on the central part of the town and not just separate districts as people often have difficulty getting to the town's center from those districts.

Tumasyan also emphasized the importance of creating a special agency to deal with the problem.

"Different groups of people should have been treated differently. But the authorities today demonstrate an identical approach to everyone," he added.

Under the procedures established by government decisions, the deadline for submitting applications for apartments was December 15, 2008. Being absent from Armenia in that period, many people were not enrolled in registration lists, thus being deprived of the right to get apartments.

What's even more, people are very often required to submit documents from relatives living abroad, which is impossible, Tumasyan said.

In a letter addressed to the government, Shirak Center NGO calls for facilitating the procedures of granting apartments to families.