ArmInfo. Former mayor of Yerevan, member of the National Progress party Hayk Marutyan called on opposition parties to boycott the decision of the Council of Elders of the Yerevan City Hall to increase the cost of public transport.
Marutyan intended to take part in the meeting of the Council of Elders, which is provided for by the law "On Local Self-Government", having sent a corresponding application in advance. However, this was denied to him. According to the ex-mayor, this speaks of the banal fear of the current city authorities and the permanent nature of violations of the law on their part.
"We will boycott the decision of the Council of Elders, and we urge all opposition factions not to limit themselves to just voting against the project, because they cannot be stopped this way, the only option is a boycott," the leader of "National Progress" emphasized.
Marutyan said that further actions of the faction would become known only in August, announcing at the end of August and in September actions by the National Progress, in which, in his opinion, Yerevan residents would also take part. He called on the ruling party not to waste time, effort and money, since in any case this decision will not work in our city.
The former mayor suggested that the city authorities, along with the proposed season tickets, keep the current option with a single ticket, which was proposed by Marutyan during his tenure as mayor. Thus, giving Yerevan residents the right to choose.
He recalled that a single ticket is a card that a citizen can top up as much as he needs, and when using public transport (buses, trolleybuses, metro), 100 drams will be debited from the card with one touch. Marutyan noted that there may be people who use public transport a lot and in their case it would be more profitable to purchase the monthly package offered by the current authorities. But the majority of the population of Yerevan is not ready for the rise in prices.
"They are introducing a project according to which travel on public transport will cost 300 drams, instead of 100 drams. If we take into account that a person uses transport once a day, going to work and home, given that the monthly package is 8,800 drams, then it turns out that he has to pay 2 times more than he travels. And we are making such a decision in a city, a country where the poverty rate exceeds 30%, where people live from paycheck to paycheck," he said.
The ex-mayor again reminded about subsidies, since new transport is more expensive for the city authorities. He noted that while heading the metropolitan municipality, he resorted to this mechanism, in parallel with which work was carried out to install elevators, etc. "They want to pass a law so as not to subsidize. But they are obliged to subsidize," Marutyan said.