VIDEO: Take it to your bedroom as a memory of grandpa, hang it on the wall: Pashinyan

For the reconstruction of 16 km of roads, the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure will be allocated funds amounting to 2 billion 860 million 300 thousand drams, while the government will provide an additional 901 million drams. The project was presented in a government meeting by the newly appointed Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, Davit Khudatyan.

According to him, among the roads scheduled for reconstruction, 1.6 km are of interstate significance, 8 km of republican significance, and 6.4 km of local significance. The plan includes the reconstruction of 3 bridges and 1 retaining wall.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan also listed the roads to be reconstructed in order. According to the Prime Minister, after the reconstruction of the roads, he has seen cases where the roads passing near settlements and restaurants are being destroyed. “There is this perception that this is in front of my doorstep, and then the state spends 500 million, I need to lay a telephone line, I will destroy it, and the state will come one day to fix it again. This is a serious problem. We have to understand how we will deal with this problem; first and foremost, the communities have work to do,” he said.

He mentioned that after the roads, which had not been renovated for decades, are reconstructed, people still do things like dumping sand on the sidewalk, stacking stones, or pouring concrete over the asphalt. “If you ask that person, ‘What are you doing?’ they will say, ‘What am I doing?’ We are escaping somewhat from those grandpa 'GAZ157' vehicles. You walk on the sidewalk, and a person is walking with their child, and suddenly you see the frame of a ‘GAZ 66,’ produced in ‘61, lying on the sidewalk, that’s grandpa’s frame, it’s the only memory left. Excuse my expression, but take it and hang it on your wall if it’s a memory. If it’s your pain, with all due respect, take it to your yard, if you don’t have a yard, put it in your house,” Pashinyan noted.

The Prime Minister emphasized that this is a serious issue. “We don’t understand the connection of all this to today’s situation. Why don’t the governors and mayors say anything? Are they afraid they will lose that grandpa’s grandson’s vote in the elections? On the contrary, if we clean it up, we might lose one vote but gain a hundred. I am going to all the communities, where I see bricks, sand, VAZ 31, 37, this will create a problem, don’t get upset with me. In the six years, there hasn’t been a community I haven’t called about this issue,” he stressed.