Parliament news

PARLIAMENT SETS ELDERLY AGE AT 70

During Tuesday's hearings on social services for the elderly in the Milli Mejlis, a heated discussion was caused by whether the age of 70 or 75 years should be viewed as elderly, which requires corresponding social benefits.

According to the deputy minister for labor and social security of the population Ilgar Rahimov, there are around 15,000 people above 75 years of age in Azerbaijan. If the age of this category of the population were set at 65 years, as was proposed by some MPs, it could lead to serious financial problems and require an additional AZM2 billion from the state budget.

After a vote, it was decided to attribute people above 70 to the category.

MP MAD AT VICE-PREMIER

MP Nizami Guliyev aired his grievances Tuesday on vice-premier Abid Sharifov, who had promised to allocate funds for construction of a hospital in Gadabay, but never delivered on his word. Besides, the flood in 1997 divided Gadabay in two. AZM250 million is now necessary to build a bridge connecting the parts, N. Guliyev stated.

The MP said he had appealed to the Cabinet of Ministers but without much success so far. He then blamed vice-premier Sharifov of indifference to the issue. "Of course, he is preoccupied building a villa for himself in the vicinity of Europe Hotel and cannot help in building the hospital and the bridge", MP said.

RURAL PROBLEMS PERTURB PARLIAMENT SPEAKER

It has been a year since the authority of rural executive power committees was curtailed, leading to a multitude of problems on the countryside. Thus, to obtain birth, marriage or death certificates rural residents have to travel all the way to provincial centers.

On Tuesday, MP Ibrahim Isayev said he had received numerous complaints from villages. In response, speaker Murtuz Alasgarov confirmed that the problem exists and pledged to ask the Ministry of Justice to transfer these powers to municipal councils.