Page 14 - FSUOGM Week 03 2023

FSUOGM PIPELINES & TRANSPORT FSUOGM

Uzbek president fires Tashkent mayor for

‘empty words’ as energy shortages hit

city amid big freeze

UZBEKISTAN UZBEK President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has fired In this regard, due to the lack of preparation for
the mayor of Tashkent, protesting at his “empty the winter season, without a preliminary assess-
The mayor came under words” amid power and gas outages afflicting the ment, I dismissed the mayor of Tashkent, Jahon-
pressure for failing to capital during severe cold weather. gir Artykhodjayev," the president said.
mitigate power and gas The dismissal of Jahangir Artykhodjayev was Mirziyoyev also criticised the continued
outages affecting the announced during the early morning of January absence of a general development plan for the
capital this winter. 16. "Yesterday at headquarters I removed him capital, with the number of illegally constructed
from his post. For empty words, a false report, facilities now exceeding 250. “When allowing
for not going down to the people, for the fact that construction, there is no accurate calculation of
this unscrupulous man's feet left the ground, I the load on the existing infrastructure,” he said.
fired him," Mirziyoyev said. Mirziyoyev has also instructed the State Secu-
The Uzbek leader, at a meeting called to rity Service and the Prosecutor General's Office
address the country’s energy shortage crisis was of Uzbekistan to investigate the activities of the
angry at the lack of energy preparations officials fired officials. If violations of the law are ascer-
including Artykhodjayev had made for the win- tained, there could be prosecutions.
ter cold. He added: "Our population expresses Artykkhodjayev has faced during his time as
serious objections as regards the provision of mayor constant criticism from journalists who
natural gas and electricity, and the quality of say he took an intimidating approach to them.
public services. We all see it. I myself see the He has also been under fire for allegedly using his
unpreparedness of [municipal leaders] for the office to provide advantages to enterprises under
current situation, especially the leaders at all lev- his control.
els of the city of Tashkent. Our people also see Under Artykkhodjayev, Tashkent saw a Jahongir Abidovich
this." construction boom that is now blamed for nev- Artikxodjaev,
Daryo.uz, as well as other local media, erending power outages, gas shortages and an former mayor of
reported on an alleged attempt by Artykkhod- often angry population. ™ Tashkent
jayev to depart the country via Tashkent Inter-
national Airport prior to the meeting with
Mirziyoyev. He was said to have been detained
while trying to do so.
The now ex-mayor, along with his family,
were reportedly registered to travel on Uzbek-
istan Airways flight HY 271, which flew to
Istanbul, Turkey, after a delay. The flight was
scheduled for January 16 at 07:40.
The head of a heating plant, a deputy energy
minister as well as several regional governors,
have also been removed from their posts by the
president amid the deep freeze.
Miriziyoyev stated that a daily electricity limit
of 3mn kWh has been established in Tashkent,
while around 6,000 wholesale gas consumers
have been disconnected from the gas grid and
120 of 584 mahallas [neighbourhoods] were
experiencing electricity and gas outages.
On January 15 in Tashkent alone, seven high
and 524 low voltage transformers failed, unable
to cope with the increased load of high energy
demand amid the freezing weather.
"Why is this happening in the capital? Why
didn't we prepare in advance? I am tormented by
the question of where the responsible [leaders] of
the Cabinet of Ministers looked [in preparation],
despite the fact that we talked about it so much.

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 03 18•January•2023