Drasko Stanivukovic, the mayor of Banja Luka, expressed his revolt with the amendments to the budget proposed by the parliamentary majority, led by the SNSD, at the press conference. He stated that, if they are adopted, the city will be blocked.
“I received the amendments 16 or 17 hours ago, I still can’t believe it. I have to warn the citizens that with such proposed amendments, Banja Luka will be left without new roads, without maintaining existing ones, without the possibility of mowing lawns, maintaining green areas, parks, picnic areas, million marks for public hygiene will be abolished. This is why the amendments are so catastrophic for the people of Banja Luka, it means that this city does not have the possibility of normal functioning. The situation with the amendments is the same as if you do not have a budget at all, ” said Stanivukovic.
This is a criminal act
He specified that the amendments reduce the funds for road maintenance by 90 percent and that the remaining 10 percent has already been spent in the first three months.
“Thus, from April to the end of the year, we cannot patch a single hole if the amendments are adopted, we cannot install or repair the lamppost by the end of the year… This is an economic exodus, a criminal act,” he told.
As he added, someone, by destroying Drasko, is destroying Banja Luka and the possibility of living in the largest city of Republika Srpska (RS).
I’m defeated, not even a magician could work like this
“I am surprised, I have to admit that I was defeated, but not as a mayor, but as a man, by someone’s arrogance,” said Stanivukovic, noting that with such a budget he could not manage the city even if he were a magician.
He announced that, in case the amendments are adopted, he will post photos of the councilors who made such proposals in the parks, which will not be mowed and on the streets that have not been repaired.
He stated that the situation was very serious, that it could not continue like this, and that it was a case of “tightening the rope that must be broken politically”. He called this act “economic genocide, exodus, crime against the citizens of Banja Luka”.
“I am not behind all of this, but trust me that I say to them: ok, adopt this, but explain to your children why Banja Luka is like this, why there is no public lighting,” Stanivukovic said, and showed a black sheet of paper, illustrating what Banja Luka might look like during the night.
“Literally, it will be wrapped in black. Don’t think that someone is exaggerating the situation,” concluded Stanivukovic, Klix
E.Dz.
