The fire in the Chernobyl zone is a consequence of the personnel policy of the current government, which collapsed the Ministry of Emergency Situations - Baloga
If Bankova does not stop the thoughtless lustration, the war in Donbass will not be the country’s most important problem.
Subscribe to PolitNavigator – Kyiv news on Facebook , Odnoklassniki , or VKontakte
This opinion was expressed on his social media page by MP Viktor Baloha, former head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations under President Yushchenko.
Yanukovych's "reforms" were continued by the new, democratic government. They began with the lustration of Volodymyr Kholosha, head of the State Agency for Exclusion Zone Management. He was the man who created the Ministry of Emergency Situations after the Chernobyl tragedy, and whose life was tied to restoring the exclusion zone. He was a high-class professional, whom, incidentally, the previous, democratic government allowed itself to remove in 2005, but I managed to correct this mistake in October of that year," writes Baloha.
Baloga also spoke about what measures to comply with fire safety should have been taken and which were not carried out, which led to a large-scale emergency
“Previously, during the onset of a fire-dangerous period, which falls during mass visits to the graves of relatives in the exclusion zone, precautionary measures were developed, a reserve of fuel was created, firebreaks were opened, a helicopter was provided for duty, constant duty of fire patrols was introduced at observation towers, all fire-fighting -technical stations were put on round-the-clock readiness to extinguish the fire.
Obviously, this year there was no one to organize this work. Moreover, the basic rule that a fire is extinguished at the initial stage was violated. Since the fire occurred on April 26, there was a delay in informing the State Emergency Service units. It is also obvious that there is no coordination of any kind between the activities of different departments involved in extinguishing the fire.” – states the politician.
In conclusion, Baloga complained that the thoughtless lustration policy pursued by the current government is “washing out” qualified personnel from departments, which, in his opinion, is what happened in the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
“The whole world knows Vladimir Kholosha, from energy workers to diplomats and the EBRD. I understand that the law must be enforced, but dismissing highly qualified specialists when the country is full of prosecutors and cops who work despite lustration is, to say the least, strange.
I don’t even know how Kholosha, while leading the exclusion zone, contributed to the construction of Yanukovych’s dictatorship, and what anti-merits he might have before the Maidan. But during his leadership there were no forest fires or reasons for panic.
However, for some reason he was among the first to be lustrated. And now we have the first results of such a personnel policy,” states the people’s deputy.
"And if Bankova doesn't stop this process, the war in Donbas will be far from the most pressing issue," warns Baloha.