The truth is, at the first moment, when the <a href="https://time.news/earthquake-in-arkalochori-our-anticipation-has-become-a-habit-and-we-are-managers-of-an-unexpected-situation-by-nikos-antonakakis/" title="Earthquake in Arkalochori: Our anticipation has become a habit and we are managers of an unexpected situation. by Nikos Antonakakis*”>2021 earthquake happened, we felt that the State was our help and protector.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stood with us, personally visited the affected areas one by one, shook our hands, listened to our pain and ordered his subordinates to immediately activate a support and rehabilitation plan with a budgetary impact of approximately 300 million euros.
The first aid in the first days after the earthquake was an unprecedented €66 million, which was quickly paid to over 7,500 applicants.
Immediately after the earthquake, Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced the amount of first aid: 20,000 euros per red house, 12,000 euros per yellow house and 5,000 euros per green house with damages.
All citizens could receive first aid for damage restoration and for more than one damaged house, regardless of whether it is a primary residence or a secondary residence.
The autopsies of the responsible engineers began immediately.
The companies received a total of 3 million euros, with indirect as well as direct cases.
It is really a rehabilitation scheme that did not exist until then and everything showed at the beginning that it would develop with the speed and efficiency requested by the Prime Minister.
Similar expectations were created by the dynamic start marked by the presence of Kyriakos Mitsotakis himself on the pitch.
Unfortunately, the course turned us down…
The devastating effects of the September 2021 earthquake are still visible to this day, three years later, in the Municipalities of Minoa Pediados and Archana Asterousia.
For the owners of two thousand yellow and one thousand two hundred red buildings, life ended on September 27, 2021.
More than three years later, the numbers are disappointing.
2,696 applications have been submitted for the issuance of repair permits and of these, only 181 (!!!::!!) permits have been issued, with the result that the restoration of the pre-earthquake condition is now a pipe dream for the most earthquake victims.
According to the details of the competent Ministry, €55,278.20 has been paid for renovations and “Administrative Acts” have been sent to pay the sum of €42,537.30 for repairs, without specifying whether the money has been paid. ..
The numbers, no matter how you look at them, speak for themselves!!
The renovation is taking an unreasonable amount of time and there is very little money available.
The prices of the materials paid humiliate our fellow citizens.
For example, with the new Official Gazette of 9-8-2024, buildings whose static structure is not made of reinforced concrete will only be compensated with 800 and 600 euros per square meter. And there are many such buildings in our area that have been damaged by an earthquake.
With these facts, in Arkalochori, for the fourth winter in a row, at least seven hundred people will continue to live in containers, without a schedule to return to their homes.
Over 50 shops on the main street are closed and some of them, yellow, are operating and selling basic necessities.
At least fifty-two families have applications pending to stay in huts that are not even available.
DAEFK has designated only four and a half thousand buildings as green.
The owners of the remaining unsuitable buildings, because of the delay, have been forced to return to the unsuitable buildings at the risk of their lives.
Three years after the earthquake what do we have??
I refer to common sense. Is it reasonable for Mr. Triandopoulos, that out of a total of three thousand files, 181 files were processed in thirty seven months? Do you know what this means Mr. Triandopoulos? It doesn’t even mean 5 covers per month (!!!)
How many more months will it take to process the remaining files at this rate?
The official excuse given by the competent Ministry is the deficiencies in the necessary supporting documents of the submitted files.
Although it has not been fully clarified what exactly is missing from the submitted files that will be considered complete, a commonly mentioned problem is the ownership status of the buildings and open heritage cases.
To be precise, the Ministry’s justification is not valid in this regard and the delay is not justified.
Because the properties are declared in the land register.
So missing information can be found from the files, even official ones.
In addition, three years later, shouldn’t the Ministry also find a solution in light of the problem it identified? What exactly is he waiting for? What exactly are we waiting for??
To be fair, the Ministry passed an amendment in April that only applies to cases of green buildings that have sustained minor damage. Well, and?
Does it solve the problem of heavy damage to the unusable yellow and red houses?
Does it resolve the anchorages from the ownership regime that the Ministry itself calls for?
On the other hand, those of us who live in the area know that there is not enough staff to respond to the scale of the project.
The TAEFK is still understaffed, and there is no provision to strengthen it with new, experienced staff.
Sad conclusion:
For the fourth consecutive year, the victims of the earthquake and their families remain in a state of hostage and frustration.
Three years later, it is fully revealed that there is no plan and procedures to give full damages and compensation to those affected.
Time is merciless and hope is extinguished in wonderful and beautiful words that we have been hearing for three years….
We became administrators on a prospect born to us by the hope in the Prime Minister’s words.
We expected others and unfortunately reality burdens us every day with other things to manage.
And this burden of frustrated expectations is unbearable, worse than the impact of the earthquake.
*Nikos Antonakakis is a New Democracy executive
*The articles published in the “Opinions” category express the opinion of their author and the positions do not necessarily correspond to the opinion of ekriti.gr
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