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The Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast
January 28, 2010. XXXV Session of the Tomsk Oblast State Duma At the beginning of the session the deputies of the Tomsk Oblast State Duma addressed the citizens of the Oblast. The Address contains a proposal to spend the period of one hundred days before the 65th Anniversary of World War II in a way that all veterans of the War are encompassed with care and attention. Currently in Tomsk Oblast there are just two and a half thousand veterans left, and the youngest of them are over eighty years old. The deputies called upon those who care to devote each of the remaining hundred days to the veterans, visit them at their homes, find out their needs, give them a helping hand. 'It is not only important to hold a grand celebration of the 65th Anniversary of the Great Victory. It is more important that those who fought in the War, who made that Victory come true, feel our support, see that the society cares about them.'
The Governor of Tomsk Oblast Viktor Kress addressed the deputies with his Annual Message. He said that it was high time that we drew lessons from the crisis although it is not over yet. Tomsk Oblast must:
- generate a new wave of business activity;
- change its investment policy;
- improve efficiency of budget
spending.
 The Governor announced creation of a new committee on modernization of the Tomsk Oblast economy which will consist of officials, businessmen and representatives of public associations.
Mr. Kress believes that along with the permanent 'gold projects' for the development of Tomsk Oblast such as the 'Bakchar Ore', 'Tomsk Oblast - a Territory of Transit', 'Wooden Architecture', etc. three new projects must be launched, namely:
- Creation of a Federal Center for Education, Research and Development.
- Tomsk Oblast – Energy Efficient Region.
- Our New School.
The deputies made amendments to the Oblast Law 'On providing local governing bodies with special authorities in organization and carrying out of guardianship activity in Tomsk Oblast' which enables guardianship authorities to take part in criminal proceedings acting as legal representatives of juvenile orphans.
In the first reading the deputies passed amendments to the Law 'On social support for citizens with infant children'. The Law was amended to include norms for annual indexation of child allowance. According to the explanatory note for the bill, the budgeted spending on monthly allowances for economically disadvantaged children in 2010 is 188.4m rubles.
The deputies brought the Oblast Law 'On civil service in Tomsk Oblast' into line with the corresponding federal legislation. The citizens of Tomsk Oblast who hold or seek a public office will be obligated to submit information on their income, property, estate liabilities and also similar information regarding their spouse and infant children.
The deputies backed amendments to the Oblast Budget Act which were earlier approved by the Duma Budgetary and Financial Committee. The total amount of revenues of the Oblast budget in 2010 was increased by 583m rubles, spending by 683m rubles; so the budget deficit will be 0.53% or 100m rubles.
The revenues grew due to non-repayable receipts from the public corporation Fund for Assistance to Housing Maintenance and Utilities Reform targeted at financing of the apartment blocks overhauls.
Also, the Football Club 'Tom' was provided with 100m rubles of government guarantees in order to prepare for the Russian Football Championship among the Premier League clubs.
The Law 'On indigenous minorities in Tomsk Oblast' was passed in its first reading. The Law defines the powers of different levels of public authorities in Tomsk Oblast with regard to indigenous minorities to protect their rights and preserve their identity, culture and traditional forms of agriculture.
Andrey Kuzichkin, Head of Tomsk Oblast Department of Culture, said that this Law will serve as a legal framework to improve living conditions for the Selkups, Chulym people, Evenkis and Khanty. And eventually, extensive international experience in saving indigenous peoples, and in particular Canadian experience, can be used based on this legal framework.
Currently, approximately 2,000 people representing the indigenous minorities live in Tomsk Oblast.
Amendment to the Laws 'On the Youth Policy' and 'On the Tomsk Oblast Youth Parliament' were adopted in two readings. The Tomsk Oblast Youth Parliament will incorporate the Political Council including people with significant experience and influence to develop the Youth Parliament. And the Oblast administration will incorporate the Coordination Council established to organize activity of student groups which is supposed to develop the support system and define the measures for organizational assistance in the activity of student groups in Tomsk Oblast.
The bill 'On requirements to transportation in passenger taxis in Tomsk Oblast' was passed in its first reading. Moreover, in the first reading the deputies approved amendments to the Tomsk Oblast Administrative Code establishing responsibility for violation of the above requirements.
The bill is aimed to ensure safety of passenger taxi transportations. In January-November of 2009 traffic officers detected nearly 48,000 traffic offences committed by passenger taxi drivers. In recent years the number of grave road accidents involving passenger taxies has been growing.
The bill prohibits usage of passenger taxies modified without permissions, i.e. self-made. As a qualification requirement, driving experience of a taxi driver is supposed to be minimum three years. Besides, the bill imposes a requirement to forbid the diseased and tired taxi drivers to drive, as they put the passengers’ safety in jeopardy.
The Oblast Law 'On social support forms and procedures in provision of housing to veterans, disabled citizens and families with disabled children' was amended. From now on all the disabled people and the WWII participants in need for housing improvement have the right to be provided with a new apartment regardless the time they have applied for this provision.
In 2009, 98 Tomsk Oblast WWII veterans out of 99 registered in the local authorities by March 1, 2005 as in need of the housing improvement could improve their housing conditions. During January the remaining one veteran will be provided with an apartment.
Since the registration deadline is lifted, presumably other 200 veterans could be able to improve their housing conditions. The money is allocated from the federal budget.
Chairmen of three Duma committees reported on the results of work in 2009:
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