Opposition members of Riga City Council have decided to give Riga City Council Transport Department two weeks to improve the level of safety for traffic participants while repairs are being performed on the streets of the capital. If the transport department does not comply, the New Conservative Party reserves the right to request the dismissal of acting head of the department Emils Jakrins.
“If the situation does not improve considerably in the next two weeks, NCP may also request the dismissal of Riga Mayor Nils Usakovs, seeing as though he is directly responsible for approving Jakrins in this post,” says the leader of NCP Janis Bordans.
He says the fact that poor organization of street repairs can be used as a reason to request dismissal.
According to Bondars, the matter of safety of traffic participants during street repairs was added to the agenda of the extraordinary meeting, as was the matter of the planning of said repair work and their effect on traffic organization.
“The report from Riga City Council Transport Department was read during the meeting. This report did not offer a solution to the current problem. Also the representative of the department could not answer the question asked by Juris Jurass about the reasons why a single project leader was not appointed to manage and coordinate mutual communication among parties engaged in street repairs to avoid problems with unexpected work performed by Rigas udens or Rigas Siltums. The opposition also asked the department to publish exact completion dates for each area to help keep residents informed,” Bordans said.
At the end of the meeting, it was decided with a vote to take the report into account. No decisions were made on future actions. Nevertheless, the opposition promises to organize an extraordinary meeting in two weeks to assess the situation. (BNN/Business World Magazine)