While seeking assistance from the President’s Aide – Inspector for the Vitebsk Region, Sergey Levkovich, on what appear to be private matters, applicants sometimes raise issues 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, having moved to her historical homeland from Latvia. She works at one of the state enterprises and wishes to change her place of employment but cannot provide the new employer with the necessary set of documents. The applicant claims that other expatriates face the same problem of being unable to provide a reference from their previous place of work or their employment record book. Yet, they could be beneficial to the labour market in Belarus.
Sergey Levkovich noted that the woman’s case confirms that a sensible manager will find an opportunity to hire an employee needed by their enterprise. Bureaucratic obstacles should not arise when it comes to specialists who can prove their qualification level or when taking up employment requiring unskilled labour.
He instructed the Committee for Labour, Employment and Social Protection of the Regional Executive Committee to study the situation of individuals holding temporary and permanent residence permits and, within a month, propose mechanisms for their integration into the region's economy.
– I was hasty with the landscaping of common lands in the village of Shultsevo, – the next applicant began his story. – Near the plot allocated to me for personal subsidiary farming, I carried out sanitary felling of osier.
This is what the man believed. However, the District Inspectorate of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection viewed his actions from a different perspective. For the 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.
During the reception, the citizen was explained that felling healthy (non-emergency, non-hazardous) trees on common lands is prohibited. Decisions on the removal of trees and shrubs as part of landscaping are 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 works, – informed 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 must not break the law. An applicant can undertake the task of removing excessive 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 higher levels to simplify the procedure for sanitary felling on settlement lands.
Other issues raised by citizens to the President's Aide concerned: maintenance of private housing stock, disputes over land plot boundaries, and a labor dispute. All problems will be studied within a month, and applicants will be provided with responses.