Sergey Levkovich: "The law is at the core of resolving issues"
By seeking assistance from Sergey Levkovich, Presidential Aide – Inspector for the Vitebsk Region, to resolve their seemingly private issues, applicants sometimes raise problems of public significance. This was also the case during a personal reception of citizens held at the Vitebsk District Executive Committee.
…A woman holds a residence permit in Belarus. She obtained it a year and a half ago after moving to her historical homeland from Latvia. She works at one of the state enterprises and wants to change her job but cannot provide the new employer with the necessary set of documents. The applicant claims that other expatriates face the problem of not being able to provide a reference from their previous place of work or their employment record book. However, they could be useful in the Belarusian labor market.
Sergey Levkovich noted that the woman's example confirms that a reasonable manager will find an opportunity to hire an employee needed by their enterprise. Bureaucratic obstacles should not arise when it comes to specialists confirming their qualification level or when hiring for jobs requiring unskilled labor.
He instructed the Committee for Labor, Employment, and Social Protection of the Regional Executive Committee to study the situation with holders of temporary and permanent residence permits and to propose mechanisms for their integration into the region's economy within a month.
– I was hasty with the landscaping of common lands in the village of Shultsevo, – the next applicant began his story. – I carried out sanitary felling of willow bushes near the plot allocated to me for personal subsidiary farming.
This is what the man thought. However, the District Inspectorate of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection viewed his actions from a different perspective. For unauthorized removal of vegetation, he was presented with a claim for compensation for the damage caused in the amount of 1.8 thousand rubles. If the damage is compensated voluntarily, administrative penalties in the form of a fine will not be applied.
At the reception, the citizen was explained that felling healthy (non-emergency, non-hazardous) trees on common lands is prohibited. The decision to remove woody and shrub vegetation as part of landscaping is made by a commission. This is preceded by the development of a master plan for the further development of the settlement and a felling project. The very procedure for creating these documents requires significant financial investment.
– The district budget initially allocated 160 thousand rubles for improvement, – reported the Chairman of the District Council of Deputies, Viktor Dorozhkin. – These funds are to be used for snow removal, road gritting, grass cutting…
Sergey Levkovich summarized that even acting with good intentions, one cannot break the law. An applicant can undertake the task of removing excess vegetation in a settlement only if the executive committee makes an appropriate decision.
However, the problem of overgrowth is characteristic of many villages in the region and is large-scale. It may be necessary to escalate initiatives to a higher level to simplify the procedure for sanitary logging on settlement lands.
Other issues raised by citizens to the President's aide concerned: maintenance of private housing stock, a dispute over land plot boundaries, and a labor dispute. All problems will be studied within a month, and applicants will be provided with responses.