Municipal Council: Only 165 applications have been made by flood victims for exemption from municipal fees

Just 165 applications for exemption of flood victims from municipal fees have been recorded in the services of the Municipality of Larissa.

This number was reported by the deputy mayor of Finance, Mr. Achilleas Kellas cheating on a question of the municipal councilor of the Larissai Alliance, Mr. Thanos Adamopoulos as part of the accountability process at yesterday’s City Council meeting.

Specifically, Mr. Adamopoulos asked whether the municipal authority has informed the affected parties with announcements and press releases, and through the media both about the specific regulation and the procedure required, how many applications have been submitted and how many of them have been processed the services of the Municipality and were sent to DEDDIE so that citizens can see the exemptions on their accounts?

And these questions were asked yesterday because, as Mr. Adamopoulos mentioned in a recent visit to the districts of Agios Thomas and N. Smyrna, they found that many citizens are not aware of the decision and have not submitted the corresponding application to the Services of the Municipality of Larissa.

We remind you that after the September floods, the Municipal Council unanimously decided to exempt the affected citizens from municipal fees. A decision which was also approved by the Decentralized Administration.

Mr. Kellas stated that 165 applications have been submitted, all of which have been processed either positively or negatively, and he specifically added that 129 were processed positively, 21 applications were rejected, 14 are being drafted and have not been finalized by the applicants and one is provisionally accepted. The above information is up to date as of Tuesday, April 23rd and the platform is still active on web page of the Municipality of Larissa.

The deputy mayor also mentioned some information about the areas of the applicants. Specifically, 57 concern Giannouli, 31 Nea Smyrni, 15 Agios Thomas, 12 Falani, 6 Philippoupoli, 5 the ATA area and 3 Koulouri.

The low number of applications in proportion to the number of flood-affected citizens in Larissa was pointed out by both Mr. Adamopoulos and the head of the People’s Rally, Mr. Petros Krikis.

“I think that here we need to discuss the issue again in relation to the flood victims of the Yannouli Workers who have damaged basements and are not covered by the Municipal Council’s decision” said Mr. Krikis and added specifically for the Yannouli Workers that there are more than 300 flood victims. “We have two tins. Either a world rejects itself by seeing the process or a world is excluded from the context that exists. We need to revisit the issue,” he said.

Mr. Adamopoulos emphasized in his turn that based on the low number of applications, people do not know about the specific measure. “You didn’t make a single press release, you didn’t make a single press conference, you didn’t appear in the city’s media. Do that and I think the applications will increase,” he said.

Speaking at the end, the mayor of Larissa, Mr. Thanasis Mamakos, said that he as well as officials of the municipal authority have met with representatives of flood victims and explained the process to them. “It’s really hypocritical that we are to blame because there is no desire from the citizens to come and do the procedure they have to do to get rid of the municipal fees” he said and added that the service is open, accepts calls and the relevant deputy mayors talk and they give information.

K. Kontokostas

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