President Milanović not Satisfied with Reconstruction of Quake-Stricken Areas: People Want Reconstruction to Be Quicker, All Are Critical
The President of Republic Zoran Milanović toured the earthquake-stricken areas of Sisak-Moslavina County including the town of Petrinja and the communities of Novo Selo Glinsko and Majske Poljane.
First in the company of the mayor of Petrinja Darinko Dumbović, he toured the town centre that sustained the heaviest damage in the earthquake. He began his tour of the innermost part of Petrinja at the secondary school and met with the principal Milan Orlić, who informed him of the extent of the damage sustained by one of the oldest education institutions in Sisak-Moslavina County. During the course of the tour, mayor Dumbović acquainted President Milanović with the damage in the area of the town, the current situation in the field and reconstruction plans.
After Petrinja President Milanović visited the Milošić family in Novo Selo Glinsko whose house is being reconstructed by Homeland War veterans on the initiative of members of the 63rd Guards Battalion Veterans Association from Požega and the “Branko Drinovac Lega” Association from Bresnica near Pleternica. The president of the 63rd Guards Battalion Veterans Association Dragan Valent explained that retired defenders got together and decided to rebuild from its foundation the house of a Croatian defender with three or more children in the quake-stricken area of Sisak-Moslavina County. When the charity was initiated, defenders from throughout Croatia and their friends from Germany and Austria joined in, and he added that soon they will begin to lay the bricks on the house.
Subsequently, President Milanović toured Majske Poljane and visited the families whose homes were destroyed by the earthquake. In the company of the deputy mayor of Glina Branka Bakšić Mitić he talked to the families who stayed on to live next to their destroyed homes and farms.
“People want things to move faster, they’re all critical. The question is what’s realistic, what’s actually hampering the efforts. The fact is that in Petrinja a great deal has to be torn down in the town centre because no renovation is possible”, President Milanović told reporters after visiting Petrinja, Novo Selo Glinsko and Majske Poljane.
He told them that he hasn’t got any answer as to why after so many months, nothing is visibly happening, and expressed regrets that things are at a standstill. “These people have no livelihood. What they formerly worked hard for, they lived from, and won’t be able to work in the future if no material conditions are available. They are as humble as they used to be, but at the moment they have no conditions whatsoever”, President Milanović remarked.
FOTO: Ured predsjednika Republike Hrvatske / Ana Marija Katić