Homel Writer Successfully Insisted On Exclusion From Database Of “Parasites”
- 13.05.2019, 14:09
Nika Rakitsina considers commissions to promote employment to be a waste of money.
Homel writer Nika Rakitsina (creative pseudonym of Liudmila Bahdanava) has been excluded from the database of citizens who are not employed in the economy and will not pay utility bills at increased tariffs, Homel Viasna writes.
In January, Rakitsina received a notification that she was included in the base of those not employed in the economy and would be forced to pay utility bills at a higher rate. The writer appealed for help to the REP Trade Union and human rights activist Leanid Sudalenka. He helped to file a complaint with the Homel City Executive Committee and the Tsentralny District administration saying that forced labor is contrary to the Constitution.
56-year-old Nika Rakitsina received a response from the Tsentralny District administration: “According to the results of the permanent commission’s work, you are not included in the list of those not employed in the economy who pay at prices (tariffs) that ensure full recovery of the economically reasonable costs of hot water supply due to the commission’s decision not to include in the list the persons of pre-retirement age.”
“Officials paid attention to my age only after the resonance in the press. When, the commission declared me a parasite in January and obliged to pay at higher rate, they did not pay attention to my age. Few people believed in the possibility of getting rid of the increased communal charge. But I want to say: you must believe and speak out loud about what is happening,” – the writer commented to BelaPAN.
She considers the commissions to promote employment of the population a waste of money, since there are already committees and departments for social protection and employment in the system of state bodies.
Nika Rakitsina left work in 2009 to devote herself to writing. She wrote seven books that were published. In 2008, the writer won the Eurocon award (European Science Fiction Society Award) in the nomination “Best Debut” for the novel “The Race.” Recently her new, eighth, novel “My kingdom. Bastion” was published.
Rakitsina is not a member of any author's unions. She does not understand why the authorities recognized her as "parasite," since in fact she has two works – of a writer and of a housewife.