Rédaction Africa Links 24 with lexpress
Published on 2024-03-06 02:45:00
Richard Ramanambitana, the new President of the Special Delegation of the capital.
The new PDS of the capital officially took office yesterday at the city hall. He declares his willingness to meet the challenge of collecting garbage within ten days. He also announces priorities until the arrival of the new mayor.
A significant challenge. This is what Richard Ramanambitana, the new President of the Special Delegation of the Urban Commune of Antananarivo (PDS), is facing after his appointment and the President’s declaration earlier this week. Ten days is the deadline given by Andry Rajoelina to the PDS to get rid of the tons of garbage littering the capital. Yesterday morning, during the official ceremony of taking office, on the parvis of the City Hall of Analahely, Richard Ramanambitana expressed his determination, as well as that of his team, to meet the challenge set by the president. In addition, he emphasized the importance of restoring the finances of the municipality in order to undertake urgent work. “We have already met with the team to assess the situation. The finances of the municipality will soon be restored so that we can focus on the priorities of the community,” he said. “I assure you that these finances will regain their stability,” he continues. The main cause of the current problems in the capital lies in the non-payment of taxes by most taxpayers, according to the former senator, since these taxes are the main source of revenue for the municipality. According to him, if these tax revenues regularly enter the municipality’s coffers, there will be no more mountains of garbage or difficulties in paying staff salaries. These problems, however, are not new. The challenge will be even greater for the former senator, given the difficulties encountered by most of his predecessors in solving these two problems.
Vice-PDS
Short and long-term goals have been set in order to achieve the President’s objectives. The rolling stock provided by Japan can help clear the piles of garbage in most neighborhoods of the capital. However, the means to fuel these vehicles still need to be found, given the current financial problems of the municipality. “At the moment, we are developing a short-term strategy to achieve the ten-day goals,” explained the PDS yesterday afternoon in Anosibe during his first descent. He goes on to say that the municipality is also in talks with other partners to obtain a grant for the acquisition of fuel for the thirty-two trucks made available to the Municipal Sanitation Company (SMA). The national water and electricity distribution company (Jirama) is among the partners in discussions with the municipality to provide funding. However, Jirama has been facing difficulties for some time. A fundamental change will be made within the CUA and the organizational chart will soon be modified. So far, the municipality has used a system with a deputy, but the PDS announces the establishment of a vice-PDS position. Details on the appointment and timing of the appointment of the person to occupy this position are not yet specified, but Richard Ramanambitana has declared the usefulness of this reform. He also announced that a meeting with municipal councilors will take place soon to discuss this change. It should be noted that several municipal councilors belong to the opposition, and some of them even arrived in 2019 under the Orange banner, but have since joined the opposition. In his first speech as PDS, Richard Ramanambitana announced his three priorities: fighting the scattering of garbage, repairing roads, and paying staff salaries on time.
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