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March 2009 Caucasus School of Journalism and Media Management INSIDE Campaign against pre recorded music launched Page 10 Gudauri resort attracts fewer visitors photo by Alana Gagloeva New Bus Fare Families Losing Page 4 System Debuts Social Assistance Marinka GARIBASHVILI TV set and books push the family While standing at the bus stop in Di- of the buses drive at normal speed and above the poverty line gomi near the square Texel, waiting to arrive at bus stops according to the for the bus # 51, Guram Nebieridze, schedule,” he said. Ketevan VASHAGASHVILI A Tbilisi bus ticket costs 40 tetri. 82, has only a 1 lari paper note in his Students pay 20 tetri, citizens on gov- Ivane, 14, lies with a high tempera- assistance were given 30 lari for the pocket. ernment aid pay 10 tetri, and there are ture in a small, dark room without head of the family per month, plus 12 free tickets for school children, war Houses destroyed in heat on a winter evening. He tries lari for each member. Th ese families He has not heard yet that there is a veterans and the disabled. were also given vouchers for gas and Africa Suburb new system of paying in the buses, and Th e ticket prices have not changed. not to look at the darkened tele- electricity, a discount for local trans- that he needs to have exact change for Th e new method works this way: vision set or at his disappointed portation and health insurance. But in his ride. He also does not know that if when riders get on the bus, they either grandmother. 2008, the families were reevaluated. he doesn’t buy a ticket, he could get drop small change in the fare machine Th e grandmother fi led a complaint Page 5 fi ned. or touch it with a special card (cards How could a TV be blamed for with the Public Defender’s Offi ce. After March, any passenger who cost 2 lari, which passengers buy and something? And yet this family’s tele- Ana Chubinidze, senior specialist in does not pay for a bus ticket can be add lari to pay their bus fares). Th ey vision set is guilty. the law and socio-economic division fi ned 15 lari by bus monitors who will take their ticket and hold on to it un- A TV set and school books for Ana, of the Public Defender’s Offi ce, said be checking passengers. til they get off the bus. After March, 12, and Ivane, 14, were the reason that she received 37 protests in 2008 from Th e Municipal Transport Depart- bus monitors will patrol the buses and Tamar Japaridze and her two orphaned families denied social assistance for ment of Tbilisi City Hall is in charge impose a 15 lari fi ne on any passenger grandchildren lost their monthly So- similar reasons. of instituting a major reform, which who travels without a ticket. cial Assistance payment from Georgia. After the Public Defender recom- will involve using new automatic fare If the fi ne is not paid within a (Th e names of the family have been mended that Social Assistance for machines in all of the city’s 742 buses. month, it will increase to 50 lari. changed to protect their privacy.) these families be restored, 19 families Th ey have already been installed in all Bus monitors have been hired and Since 2005, more than 350,000 were placed back on the assistance buses. But the new fi ne system is not trained by city government to ride the families judged to be below the pov- rolls, but the rest of the protests were in eff ect yet; it will start at the end of buses, making sure that each rider de- erty line have been eligible to receive rejected. March. posits a fare. Th ey walk from one bus Social Assistance from the Ministry In 2008, the Social Subsidy Agency Akaki Jokhadze, head of the Mu- stop to another and will appear in the of Labor, Health and Social Defense. had spent 97 million lari ($60.6 mil- nicipal Transport Department, said buses from time to time. Some moni- Th e Ministry’s Social Subsidy Agency lion) to aid families below the poverty Old garbage bunkers are being the new system will be easy, conve- tors begin to work at 7 a.m., and in the evaluated families, giving them points line. Th e budget of the Social Subsidy replaced by new containers nient and he predicts it will improve middle of the day they are shifted to according to four main factors: health, Agency increased in 2009, and the city transport service. other buses. Jokhadze declined to say education, employment and evalua- number of families increased slightly. “Th e new project is organized to how many monitors have been hired. tion of their living conditions. make people pay, and to make drivers Page 12 Continued on page 3 Families judged eligible to receive Continued on page 3 2 CAUCASUS SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND MEDIA MANAGEMENT BSJ CAUCASUS SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND MEDIA MANAGEMENT Reporters Natalie Nozadze Sophio Ebralidze Ketevan Vashagashvili Marinka Gharibashvili Ketevan Ebanoidze Salome Kasradze Lika Kasradze Ia Gavasheli Zaka Guluyev Gayane Avetisyan Marianna Pepanyan Vusala Alibayli Sabina Akbarova Khanim Javadova Alana Gagloeva Vugar Baba Eka Chitanava Rusudan Panozishvili Malkhaz Chkadua Editors Margie Freaney Tiko Tsomaia Leli Blagonravova Sub Editors Sophio Ebralidze Ketevan Vashagashvili Alana Gagloeva Salome Kasradze Dean Maia Mikashavidze The Brosse Street Journal welcomes letters to the editor Please make submissions to: 2 Brosset St., Tbilisi Georgia [email protected] tel: (+995 32) 923952 fax:(+995 32) 931466 BSJ reserves the right to edit submissions for length and clarity All material copyrighted 2008 BSJ CAUCASUS SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND MEDIA MANAGEMENT 3 The new project New Bus Fare System Debuts is organized to (Continued from page one) working day was about 11 hours. glad about the new system. Th anks to portation department, hopes those 10 He said that if passengers knew the Drivers could earn about 48 lari a the new fare machines, he has a job. days will be enough to let all bus riders make people number of monitors, it would nega- day, on a good day. But a weekend or He is one of the monitors, also know how to buy tickets automati- tively aff ect the new system. holiday might mean they had to put in called controllers, who will ride the cally. pay, and to make “It is a secret of fi rm,” he said. their own money to pay the 170 lari to buses. Th e automatic fare machine project drivers of the buses Th e monthly salary of the bus mon- the company. “Controllers will have really very was funded by Bank of Georgia. Ivane itors in Tbilisi is 600 lari. “Th ere were lots of problems be- hard work; they will begin at 7 o’clock Gulmagarashvili, project manager of drive at normal cause of this system,” according to and in the middle of the day will be the Bank of Georgia, said that the proj- REPLACING OLD WAYS Jokhadze. shifted. Th ey will face some obstacles, ect cost 7 million lari ($4.4 million). speed and to In 2004, Georgian government Drivers raced along the streets to even struggles, and that’s why we se- Each fare machine costs bought new yellow buses, but the usual get as many passengers and fares as lected them specially. Controllers 990 euro ($1,224). arrive at bus stops system of paying continued. Drivers possible, to increase their daily pay, or should be patient, attentive, polite and Th is year the bank will produce new according to the collected money directly from the pas- they might drive more slowly if that careful,” said Gela Sabadze, head of the credit cards for its customers. Th e sengers, who paid when disembarking. was better for their pocketbook. monitoring department of Buses of cards will serve as transport cards in schedule “Th ere was no fi ne for not paying “It caused lots of problems, buses Tbilisi. the metro and in the buses as well. and the only punishment for the dis- were always late,” Jokhadze said. Aleksidze is not worried about the Th e money paid by special elec- Nino Khantadze, 31, works in pub- obedient was the quarrel of the strict Under the new system, drivers’ sala- diffi culties of his new job. tronic cards in the buses is transferred lic television, and every morning for driver,” said Besik Natenadze, the ries will be raised to 4.5 lari per hour, “Every day I and every member of to the bank’s account. Moreover, the about three years she has taken two General Director of the L.T.D Tbilisi’s and they will not have to worry about my family travel by buses, I know what partner company of the Bank of Geor- buses from Vake to Kostava Buses. collecting from passengers. Jokhadze kinds of passengers are there, I know gia, “Metro service+,” prints the cards “I understood everything. It’s quite Th e company was established by thinks it will solve most of the prob- how to deal with them,” said Aleksidze. and the partner company gets profi t easy and I think that it’s a normal idea. Tbilisi City Hall and is part of the gov- lems. “We shall not begin fi ning passen- from each card sold. We had to wait for driver until he ernment of Tbilisi. All buses in Tbilisi gers until each of them understands gave change, and now we can embark are under the authority of LTD Tbilisi’s ADJUSTING TO NEW SYSTEM how to take tickets,” said Besik Nat- PROS AND CONS through the back door.

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