Ombudswoman criticises health minister for "qualifying" case of IDP’s death during ongoing investigation
The public defender said she was ready to “act as a mediator” between the government and the residents of the further sanatorium. Photo: Public Defender of Georgia.
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Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria has criticised health minister Zurab Azarashvili’s comments on the case of the death of Zurab Chichoshvili, an internally displaced person who jumped out of his apartment in the former Kartli sanatorium building and died on January 15, saying it was "wrong to declare a qualification during the investigation.”
Azarashvili expressed his condolences following the incident yesterday, adding that based on the initial assessment the death was an accident and calling on the public to refrain from linking it to the long-standing problems of IDPs who have had to reside in the dilapidated former sanatorium building until the end of the investigation.
Lomjaria, who visited the sanatorium yesterday, said she had spoken to witnesses and noted that based on their comments of the incident it did "not leave the impression of an accident.”
Public Defender Meets with IDPs Living in Kartli Sanatorium https://t.co/KD6oszZQza
— Ombudsman of Georgia (@Ombudsman_Geo) January 18, 2022
Due to the difficult living conditions in the building, the IDPs residing there have long requested they be given new housing. The public defender said she was ready to “act as a mediator” between the government and the residents of the further sanatorium.
First of all, this obligation must be taken by the state - to buy these flats and hand them over to the IDPs, who have a lot of residential problems and are having a hard time, many of them are elderly,” Lomjaria said.
The health ministry has revealed the IDPs living in the former sanatorium will receive new housing "unconditionally" this year.
More than 18,000 IDP families were provided with new housing between 2004-2012, with another 27,000 benefiting from a similar state initiative over the past ten years.
The Georgian government announced in early August 2021 it planned to provide further 13,000 IDP families with new homes across the country as part of a four-year plan.
Minister of Health Zurab Azarashvili has expressed his condolences following yesterday’s incident at the former Kartli sanatorium when IDP Zurab Chichoshvili jumped out of his apartment in the building and died yesterday.
The Georgian government has given property deeds to 122 internally displaced families (321 persons) for the symbolic price of one lari in the western Kobuleti municipality and the capital of Tbilisi, Georgian Economy Minister Natia Turnava announced earlier today.
About 300 internally displaced (IDP) families living in state-owned buildings will register the apartments they inhabit at a symbolic price, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili announced today.
Georgian government plans to provide 13,000 internally displaced families with new homes across the country within the next four years, Director of the IDP Agency Besarion Simonishvili announced earlier today at the health ministry’s presentation of the 4-year strategic plan for the resettlement of IDPs. A total of 8,000 apartments will be built in various Georgian cities such as Tbilisi, Zugdidi, Kutaisi and Rustavi and 709,800,000 GEL (about $229,508,196/€193,807,339) will be allocated from the state budget for the IDP settlement project in 2021-2024.
Families of internally displaced persons who have been residing in the dilapidated Kartli sanatorium building will "unconditionally" recessive new housing by the end of 2022 to solve the long-running issue, prime minister Irakli Garibashvili announced on Monday.
A total of 40 families of internally displaced persons who lived in the dilapidated building of the former Kartli sanatorium in Tbilisi have received flats in a newly built apartment block in the capital, the Ministry of IDPs said on Thursday.