Miskolc mayor pledges to continue dismantling slums

Budapest, January 26 (MTI) – The local government of Miskolc, in north-eastern Hungary, is committed to carrying on with plans to eliminate slums on the city’s outskirts, the city’s mayor told MTI on Tuesday.

Ákos Kriza said the city would appeal to the Kuria, the supreme court, against a decision of Hungary’s equal opportunities authority (NEKI), which was upheld by a court on Monday. NEKI said last summer that Miskolc council had been in breach of the law when it evicted people from slums mainly inhabited by Roma families.

Kriza said eliminating the slums was “one of the most important of the city’s policies” and the policy enjoyed broad support, including backing by 35,000 local residents who signed a supporting petition earlier. “Steps to eliminate the slums will continue,” he said.

The mayor insisted that the ruling upheld on Monday only called on the council to prepare a more detailed action plan for continuing the programme. “This is all we are obliged to do and nothing more,” he said, adding that NEKI was exaggerating the substance of the court ruling. He added that Miskolc would not offer housing to anyone who “fails to pay bills, to criminals or people who cannot keep to the norms of social behaviour”.

NEKI said in a statement on Monday that on July 23 last year it had imposed a fine of 500,000 forints (EUR 1,592) on Miskolc city council for its discriminatory actions in the so-called “numbered streets” of Miskolc, where many Roma families lived. It also called on the local authority to provide adequate housing for the families involved and to deal with the problem of homelessness which emerged as a result of its measures. NEKI said that a government office, the ombudsman, the Kuria, and now a public administration court had all determined that Miskolc council had acted wrongly.

In August last year, the local government of Miskolc had the larger part of an apartment block on the city’s outskirts demolished, under a municipal programme to eliminate slums. Nine apartments in the municipally-owned building were pulled down, while the remaining one, which a family refused to vacate, was left intact.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters