“You'd better buy military equipment!” Chelyabinsk authorities want to spend 400 million on string lights

Alexander Dybin

Information that the city authorities are going to spend a huge amount of money on New Year's illumination appeared on September 27, when the deputies of the City Duma approved amendments to the budget and distributed 700 million additional revenues. Most of this amount of 400 million is intended to decorate the city for the holiday.

One of the first to react was a former deputy, a wheelchair user Nikolay Olkhovsky.

“Please don’t waste 400 million on another pointless gimmick!", - he wrote in his telegram channel. - I understand that you are now looking for ways to cheer us up as cheaply as possible. Apparently, now is another moment when you feel the need to “raise the rating”. Please, in such cases, conduct at least a small sociological study about the needs of the townspeople! I understand that when a driver takes you from a warm, beautiful office in a shiny black foreign car along the “guest routes” repaired and cleared of snow to your personal country estate, it seems to you that in general, everyone in Chelyabinsk is hurt! Here's to adding a little beauty on the pillars on a long winter night - and it will become even better. But there are a couple of hundred of you, and there are hundreds of thousands of us, walking and living in ordinary houses. For 400 million rubles, you can make a huge number of necessary improvements, for which hundreds of thousands of citizens will be grateful to you.

Following the discussion, the townspeople joined the discussion, who offered, for example, to help the mobilized residents of the region with equipment.

“The point is to spend such money on these illuminations. It’s better that this money was allocated for the guys who are now on a special operation, and for the kids who need it, as you read, they need an operation, and the parents really don’t have that kind of money, ”the townspeople write on social networks.

However, the city administration has already announced an auction for 124 million rubles for the installation of Light Ceiling structures. Another purchase for 69 million involves the installation of three-dimensional structures on the pedestrian part of Kirov Street. Apparently, this is only part of the planned decoration of the city. In the mayor's office of Chelyabinsk, after an appeal from a Novye Izvestia correspondent, they asked for a written request, which was sent to the press service. But officials have already answered the question of why such money should be spent on illumination. According to representatives of the mayor's office, the money is targeted and there is nothing else to spend it on.

“Chelyabinsk was allocated funds for illumination from the budget of the Chelyabinsk region in the form of a subsidy. At the same time, local governments do not have legal grounds for changing the intended purpose of the allocated funds. It should be noted that within the framework of the concluded contracts, not only luminous structures will be purchased, but also, for example, lighting poles will be changed. The territory of the city is very large - about 500 square meters. km, and the task of the administration is to make public spaces bright and bright in all, even the most remote parts of Chelyabinsk”, - the Chelyabinsk mayor’s office told the EAN publication.

But these explanations still did not suit the townspeople. Deputy of the Central District Irina Gladysheva noted that the law allows the municipality to spend money on assistance in mobilization.

“A decree of the government of the Russian Federation has been issued, which allows spending budget funds on dual-use goods, exactly what is needed now for mobilization. What will our officials say now about the inability to spend 400 million rubles allocated for an incomprehensible illumination? - the deputy writes in his telegram channel, - but even if we assume that the Chelyabinsk authorities now begin to refer to the fact that they do not have time to change something, then you need to keep in mind that this money can be used to build a 4-way 10 storey house. They can definitely redistribute items within the budget. So why not use this money to build a house to resettle Chelyabinsk residents who live in bestial conditions, to give housing to orphans, which they have been waiting for years?”

It's worth reminding that earlier in Chelyabinsk there were already strange purchases of illumination. So the townspeople drew attention to the purchase of a luminous moon for 2.8 million rubles. A similar art object was found on a Chinese site for 51 thousand. And last year, the city authorities bought luminous whales for 10 million rubles, the design turned out to be made of metal twigs and plastic clamps. After the scandal, the purchase was canceled and the art object was removed.