Mayor of Loznica Dragana Lukić addressed citizens who gathered in front of the sports hall where a session of the Crisis Staff was held, telling them that everyone would get electricity within 72 hours (if there are no further weather complications) and that “President Vučić promised this will be the last year they have such a problem.”
Responding to questions about why services had not carried out preventive work during the summer and autumn, Mayor Lukić apologized for the fact that residents had gone six days without electricity and water.
“An apology probably doesn’t help you. We were struck by a major natural disaster. Trees broke in the forests because they are on private land… which shows us what we need to do in the future,” she said.
Citizens asked which company had been assigned the pruning work, to which she did not respond.
When told that such problems have been occurring for 20 years, she said it would not happen again.
“Here I tell you, in conversation with the President of the State… he is the legitimately elected president of the entire country… this will not happen again. I understand your anger and frustration. Every day we are on the field 24 hours a day,” she said.
More than 200 line workers from across Serbia are in Loznica, Lukić added. She did not answer the question of where they had been last autumn.
“You were in Ćacilend. You laugh in our faces, shame on you,” the citizens told her.
“Where I go is my business,” the mayor responded.
Lukić told them to show solidarity and to “go and clear the entrance for an elderly neighbor.”
“We expect electricity to reach everyone in the next 72 hours—if there are no further weather issues. In the spring, we will carry out the reconstruction you are talking about. As for resignations, we will discuss that when this is all over,” she said.
One resident emphasized that he has a month-and-a-half-old baby at home.
“What 72 hours, are you crazy?” he asked, saying he has been using a generator.
Lukić said that “the state will compensate everyone and that Vučić has resolved everything.”
“Generators are arriving, but they can only be used at transformer stations. Individual generators we requested are not safe. One transformer station covers 100 to 200 households,” she said.
She asked citizens to think of the electricians.
“Do you think about the people hanging on the poles? That one man, who is a husband and father, could die? Let’s not put pressure on them,” she said.
She added that “President Vučić said this will be the last year they have this problem.”
She asked individual citizens, including Zlatko Kokanović (for whom she said on the first day he received water and a generator), how many roads and entrances they had been able to clear of snow while waiting for the Crisis Staff members.
She told Kokanović that he “was profiling himself as a political leader and would be on the student list.”
When he replied that he had cleared the road for himself and his neighbors, she asked why he hadn’t done it today instead of being here.
“Who will reimburse me for 100 liters of gasoline I used?” he asked.
“Surely you used it for humanitarian reasons,” she responded.
Kokanović requested a promise that January electricity bills would be waived for those unable to pay.
“We will, the minister has promised as well,” Lukić said, pointing to Minister of Economy Adrijana Mesarović, who was also present.
“In other countries, it snows too, but people don’t politicize it there,” Lukić added.
One citizen told her she should resign, claiming she spent the entire summer in Ćacilend instead of working on prevention, and that people in her position in other countries would have done so.
In response, Lukić left the gathering and entered the hall.
MORE TOPICS:
U.S. SENATE CONSIDERS BILL TO IMPOSE 500% TARIFFS ON COUNTRIES CONTINUING TO BUY RUSSIAN ENERGY
“TOTAL ECONOMIC COLONIZATION”: Venezuela will buy exclusively products made in the USA!
TUCKER CARLSON WARNS: America is preparing for a World war, this Trump decision proves it! (VIDEO)
Source: Nova.rs, Foto: Printscreen Instagram