23.02.2021.
The director of the Fund, Siniša Kukić, and MP Veljko Kajtazi and his associates, held a meeting at the Fund on the topic of assistance to the Roma minority. The problems discussed included illegal dumps clean-up action, providing regular waste transport service, the construction of the necessary infrastructure, and electrification.The director of the Fund, Siniša Kukić, and MP Veljko Kajtazi and his associates, held a meeting today at the Fund on the topic of assistance to the Roma minority in Međimurje County. The problems discussed included illegal dumps clean-up action, providing regular waste transport service, the construction of the necessary infrastructure, and electrification.
The majority of the Roma population in the Republic of Croatia live in poor conditions, primarily due to the high unemployment rate and insufficient inclusion in the education system, resulting in inadequate housing conditions and energy poverty. “Part of the problem could be solved by electrification, or installing photovoltaic panels on the roofs of the houses to produce electricity,” believes Director of the Fund Kukić, pointing out that the Fund had already implemented electrification programmes, and that the implementation of a similar programme had been planned for this year.
Mr. Kajtazi agreed that would significantly help the Roma communities that were not even connected to the grid. The problem still faced by the inhabitations of the Roma settlements is inaccessibility of the utility infrastructure and illegal dumps that crop up because they do not pay the utility service.
Financing of the service provided by local utility companies is one of the possibilities for resolving the problem in the situation in which the majority of the population cannot afford the utility service, even though they need it. “The Fund has no program of financing for such issues, but we are prepared to try and find the solutions within our scope,” said the director of the Fund, referring to the Government’s Programme for improving the infrastructure and living conditions in the Roma settlements.
