“The Ministry of Internal Affairs will work alongside the municipality to combat vandalism, with enforcement of legal penalties for such incidents set to be tightened,” Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze announced at today’s meeting of the municipal government.
According to his explanation, whilst legislation has previously been in place in this area, there have been certain problems with enforcement.
“At a time when the city still has numerous problems to resolve, many cases are being recorded where certain citizens deliberately and vandalistically damage building façades.
Over the past two years, nearly 5,000 incidents of vandalism have been recorded, affecting buildings and structures, cultural heritage monuments, facilities of various agencies, metro station entrances, bus stops, and similar sites. Legislation already exists in this regard; however, we are appealing to Parliament to strengthen it. As regards rectifying the consequences of vandalism, we are talking about tens of millions of lari, which is your money, ordinary citizens’ money, that must be spent from the budget when we could instead direct these funds towards addressing other, more significant problems,” Kakha Kaladze stated.
The capital’s mayor instructed Gogi Chikhovani, head of the Tbilisi Municipal Inspection, to make this area one of the main priorities.
“I am also asking Giorgi Papava, head of Tbilservice Group, to begin appropriate works from tomorrow so that building façades are restored within two weeks. We held a working meeting with Interior Minister Geka Geladze and other representatives of the agency, where we discussed ways to address the problem. Thank you personally to the Minister for his support.
The involvement of various state agencies in resolving such problems is of utmost importance. We take no pleasure in imposing fines on anyone. I always urge you to abide by the law and not to overstep boundaries, because this city belongs to us all. Do not damage building façades, parks, squares, or public property. Otherwise, we will be forced to enforce the responsibilities set out by law strictly,” Kakha Kaladze stated.
