EcoLur
Shnogh and Teghout villagers have recently cleared the road running to “Teghout”CJSC, which they had been blocking since 5 in the morning. The residents are demanding from the company to prioritize the impacted community residents when hiring employees for the company. As Shnogh resident Levon Alikhanyan said in his phone talk with EcoLur, the representatives of the company were not involved in the meeting with the residents: there were only policemen and Head of Shnogh optimized community Davit Ghumashyan. He promised to have a meeting with the administration of “Teghout” CJSC, table the demand of the residents and to inform the residents about the company response on Monday.
The company has already accomplished the hiring process and can’t hire the residents Shnogh and Teghout residents. The workers are mainly from Alaverdi where Alaverdi copper smelter has shut down and the residential areas of the officials of Teghout” CJSC. Nevertheless, at the meeting with Shnogh optimized community members some time ago the new heads of Teghout” CJSC promised to allot 60% of the working places to Shnogh residents but they didn’t keep their promise which annoyed the people. Now there is high social tension among the people,” Levon Alikhanyan said. It turns out that Shnogh residents who have lost their land areas ensuring income because of mining and are exposed to the immediate impact of the mine, right now are also deprived of working for “Teghout’ CJSC and earning money for their families.
This material has been prepared within “Mining-Impacted Communities – Full Participants in EITI Process'” project implemented by EcoLur with the USAID support within the frames of “Engaged Citizenry for Responsible Governance” project implemented by Transparency International Anticorruption Center.
This article is made possible by the generous support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
June 21, 2019 at 13:46