2024-05-03 05:40:21
A digital platform is being put into operation immediately, which will record and monitor the uncovered areas that are hot spots for the occurrence of fires. Their owners will have the obligation to clean them every year and submit an electronic declaration to the application. Those who do not comply are subject to stiff fines, which start at 1,000 euros and can reach up to 54,000 euros. What the Minister of Digital Governance Dimitris Papastergiou says in “R”.
The government is on alert ahead of the fire season, after last year’s nightmarish summer with hundreds of fire fronts. The emphasis is on preparation, as shown by the presence of the Prime Minister at the event for the “Aegis” program of Civil Protection, with a total budget of 2.1 billion euros, but also on the deployment of digital tools for prevention and the tightening of the framework for fire protection protection. Thus, the digital platform is immediately opened, which will record and monitor the uncovered areas that are hot spots for the occurrence of fires, while heavy bells are foreseen for the gross plots.
It is characteristic that at the event for the “Aegis” program, Kyriakos Mitsotakis borrowed the phrase of the creator of the first fire service, Benjamin Franklinou, “whoever fails to prepare, prepares to fail”, in order to underline the emphasis that the government places on the formation of a effective prevention mechanism, before it is necessary to mobilize the offensive means of the fire front.
Supervision
In the battle for the protection of human life and the natural environment, new technologies, especially digital tools, are being deployed. The Ministry of Digital Governance, in collaboration with the counterparts of Civil Protection and Climate Crisis and the Interior, created through the National Network of Technology and Research Infrastructures (EDYTE) a digital platform, which can supervise and monitor preventive measures for fire protection in plots and other uncovered areas, under the title “Management of ex officio inspections of fire protection of uncovered areas of municipalities”.
According to sources of the Ministry of Digital Governance, through this specific platform, the Civil Protection will be given the opportunity, to citizens and to all interested parties, to monitor whether the owners of plots of land and other uncovered spaces, located a) in areas within an approved zoning plan , b) in areas within the boundaries of settlements without an approved landscape plan, areas and c) within a radius of 100 meters from the boundaries of the aforementioned but also outside the plan of fields with buildings, observe the rules regarding their cleaning. The owners and lessors of such plots and premises are obliged to clean them from April 1 to 30 of each year, as well as to keep them in a clean condition throughout the fire season (May 1-October 31), with the aim of avoiding the risk of fire. The aim of this measure is to prevent the occurrence of fire, but also its rapid spread.
The owners in question, after the addition of article 53A to law 4662, have the obligation to enter on the specific digital platform a declaration of cleaning for each plot of land or uncovered area, which has the status of a responsible declaration. The municipalities will check through the platform whether the declaration has been submitted and whether the work has actually been carried out. In case of non-submission of the declaration, a fine of 1,000 euros is provided, while in case of submission of a false declaration, a prison sentence of two years and a fine of 180 to 360 daily units is provided, with the amount of each daily unit not being less than 70 euros nor more from 150 euros. In other words, the fines can reach 54,000 euros in the worst case.
Innovation
One of the innovations of the platform regarding the control of the fire protection rules of plots and other uncovered spaces is the digital citizen complaint service, which enables citizens as well as legal entities to make a complaint, named or anonymous, about plots and other uncovered areas where the cleaning criteria are not met, as described in the cleaning statement. Subsequently, each municipality will be able to introduce into the system the regular or extraordinary controls, with the aim of ascertaining the fulfillment or non-fulfilment of the obligations of the owners of land and other uncovered spaces, throughout the fire protection period. As competent sources of the Ministry of Digital Governance emphasize, the said platform is valuable, as, among other things, the municipalities will have the opportunity to draw conclusions about the specific plots of land, while they will gain access to contact details of their owners.
“The digital platform for the gross plots is a tool at the service of the municipalities, so that we can contribute, as the Ministry of Digital Governance, to the prevention of fires. Now, the citizens themselves will declare the cleaning of their properties, but will also report cases where the prescribed actions have been neglected. Environmental protection issues are a joint effort, requiring the cooperation and vigilance of all of us. We utilize every available technological means, serving the government’s priority, as expressed by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis himself, to combat the climate crisis and protect human life,” the Minister of Digital Governance, Dimitris Papastergiou, told Realnews.
By SPYROS MOURELATOS – SOURCE: Realnews