Mayor Karácsony’s cryout: “stop poisoning” Budapest

The Hungarian state is a “careless and irresponsible master”, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony said on Facebook on Friday, adding that the government “has been postponing de-contaminating the premises of the former gas works” in the third district.

Karácsony said the task was urgent and insisted that carcinogenic chemicals leaching into the soil were putting Budapest’s water base at risk. The government has done “nothing but modifying and postponing the date” despite “interpellations in parliament and a series of relevant amendments”.

He admitted that cleaning the area was an expensive operation but added that “if we consider what this government spent tens and hundreds of billions of forints in the past ten years, the money should have been set aside for this really important task.” The mayor suggested that apart from the contested Rákosrendező development project, the gas works issue should also be on the agenda of the next metropolitan assembly session.

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