The Farazh weekly (#29, 21 July 2010) published an article criticizing the Innovative Road Solutions company – the one responsible for technical maintenance of the newly rehabilitated highway Dushanbe – Chanak.

In the last few months, the company has been widely criticized in the Tajik media for its tolling operations and unreasonably high tariffs. According to the President’s decree #622 “On obligatory response to criticism and analytical publications in the media”, public officials must timely provide their feedback. So far, the IRS has not provided the public with any intelligible explanation.

The Farazh has also published a list of recent publications in other media, which concern the company’s doubtful activities and tariff policies. This topic was widely discussed in online media as well in both Tajik and Russian languages and received feedback from individuals.

Neither officials from the Ministry of Transport and Communications, nor representatives of the President’s Office have given any feedback on those publications. Even representatives of the Tajik political parties and local executive authorities did not express their opinions on that, which is interpreted by media experts and human rights watchdogs as a violation of the Constitution and other relevant legal acts. The newspaper comes to the conclusion that the veil of silence and reluctance of officials have led to numerous publications and provoked rumors among the people.

NANSMIT-TajFEN