Yerevan City Council's Ruling Faction Approves 'Secret' Public Transport Fare Increase Proposal

The public transport fare increase proposal for Yerevan is set to be included in the agenda of the City Council meeting on March 12. This information was reported by the 'Zhoghovurd' newspaper, citing opposition member Mesrop Manukyan from the 'Mother Armenia' faction. According to him, the proposal will be presented for final discussion and will be approved.

'Zhoghovurd' has learned that city authorities brought the issue onto the agenda at the last moment without the opposition council members and approved it unilaterally. 'The committee meeting took place secretly; that is, the meeting was convened, but the issue was added to the agenda just one hour before the meeting, under the pretext of urgency. I cannot say what the urgency was regarding this issue. When we failed to reach a common agreement with the 'Civil Contract' party, I told them, providing figures, that they are poor managers, and we left the committee hall. They passed the proposal without the opposition,' Manukyan stated in an interview with the newspaper.

The opposition faction of the council is inclined to boycott the meeting. 'I am confident that our faction will boycott the vote on the bill. Boycotting is the only tool we have, as voting against is the same as voting in favor,' he noted.

According to 'Zhoghovurd,' the permanent committee on financial and economic issues of the Yerevan City Council initially approved the controversial public transport fare increase proposal in the first phase on March 7.