The Government will continue with a very targeted and holistic approach to the revitalization of the countryside," Interior Minister Nikos Nouris said. These housing schemes and allowances are not governed by isolated and piecemeal approaches, but by incentives so as to address the problem of homelessness and enable mainly young couples to return to their communities, Mr. Nouris said yesterday afternoon in Agia Marina Xyliatou.
The Interior Minister visited the Cultural Centre of Agia Marina Xyliatou, where he briefed representatives of the communities of Pitsilia on the revised housing plans and allowances for mountainous, extremely mountainous, disadvantaged and remote areas, as part of a series of information visits to communities.
In his remarks, the Minister said that "continuing the briefing of communities, I had the opportunity today, together with my colleagues, to present the draft housing policy and subsidy plans to community leaders and representatives of villages in semi-mountainous Nicosia, but also in mountainous areas such as Pitsilia."
"We discussed and analysed the specific plans, but far beyond that, what is recorded is that we listened to suggestions, comments."
"We discussed and analysed the specific plans, but far beyond that, what is recorded is that we listened to suggestions, comments. As we have said many times, these suggestions will be re-evaluated at the end of this year, so that the specific housing plans are improved as much as possible for the benefit of the communities," he added.
He noted that "the Government's goal is to revitalize especially the extremely mountainous and disadvantaged areas of our countryside, and of course the border areas. And it is for this reason that we have explained that the plan, which has been presented this year, is significantly improved, which I think is the finding of the community leaders themselves who have heard the specific parameters."
He said that "the Government will continue in a very targeted and holistic way to approach rural regeneration."
"And it is for this reason that these particular plans, these are not plans that are governed by isolated and piecemeal approaches, but by incentives, so that we can, and can make it feasible, to address the problems of homelessness that our villages face and certainly to enable, particularly young couples and young people, to return to their communities," he said.
The Mayor of Agia Marina Xyliatou, Mr. Christos Christou, thanking the Minister for the presentation of the housing plan, stressed that, indeed, compared to last year's plan, there are adjustments.
"It almost fully meets the requirements of our communities and we hope that, depending on the needs of the communities, it will need yearly improvement", said the Mayor. "We believe that it is a good step for people to stay in the communities or to come back."
The thanks to the Ministry were also expressed by the Community Mayor of Paleochorios Morphou, Mr. Theophilos Miltiades for the new plan which, he said, is much better than last year's.
"We have raised with the Minister and his staff some of the concerns of the mountain communities," the community leader said.
"We are confident that we have a Ministry by our side that is indeed interested in the revitalization of the mountain communities and we believe that with the new plan, and with the new demands that we are making and will be considered, we will be able to truly revitalize our countryside," he concluded.
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