MOSCOW. May 23 (Interfax-AVN) - The Federation Council upper house of parliament will reject the draft 2003 budget in case the document does not allocate funds for construction of more housing for servicemen, Igor Morozov, deputy chairman of the council's commission on information policy, said on Thursday. government to know it," Morozov told Interfax-Military News Agency.
As many as 168,000 families of servicemen need housing, the lawmaker said. 94,600 families have no flats at all, 45,800 families need service apartments and 27,600 families need improvement of their housing conditions.
The servicemen that have permanent housing are not free of problems either. About 11.8 percent of them do not have running water, 15.3 percent no drains, 20.4 percent no central heating, 37.2 percent no running water and 57.3 percent no gas.
Servicemen have to wait for more than 10 years to get a flat. Calculations show that it will take 50 to 60 years to provide the housing to all the needy soldiers if the situation does not change.
According to Morozov, some articles of the new budget can be curtailed in order to make the housing construction a priority.
"This is the stance of the defense and security committee and the Federation Council in general," the lawmaker said.
"The problem should not be narrowed by offering its solution through provision of housing certificates only. Housing should be
A reduction of the armed forces personnel will help solve the problem, he went on. For instance, the headquarters of the united Volga-Ural military district is now stationed in Yekaterinburg. "In Samara, offices of the former Volga military district headquarters are being transferred to the city authorities. It means that the city must build housing for the military in return," he said.
According to Morozov, there are many issues like that for discussion.