Sheikh Maqsoud and al-Ashrafiyeh neighborhood Councils in Aleppo help residents with service expenses
Aleppo – North-Press Agency
Zein al-Abdin Hussein
In coordination with the People’s Municipality, the co-presidency of the “General Council for the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and al-Ashrafiyeh” in Aleppo exempted the residents of the neighborhood from paying electricity fees for generator electricity (called amperes) for a week, and cleaning fees for two months, in addition to helping them in paying a month's rent for previously rented houses and stores.
Mahdi Bilal, co-chair of the People’s Municipality in Sheikh Maqsoud and al-Ashrafiyeh, told North Press that the decision came into effect last Friday as aid to the residents of the neighborhood, after the jobs of most of them have been stopped, “as many of them lost their income due to the precautionary measures of coronavirus.”
He added that, the residents were exempted from paying electricity fees for “amperes” for a whole week, in addition to being exempted from paying cleaning fees for two months, and helping them in paying the rent of one month for stores and residential houses.
Bilal stated that, the municipality met with the owners of the generators and assured them not to take the charges of the bill from anyone, as the municipality will pay these subscriptions from its own fund to the owners of the generators in full.
Regarding the amount that the municipality will pay, he pointed out that, the statistics they have refer to the amount of SYP 28,800,000 as the charge of the electricity of the private generators.
Regarding the sources of this amount, he said that it is one of the donations that come from the owners of major commercial projects in Aleppo, stressing that they have not requested any assistance from any party yet, including the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.
The co-chair of the Sheikh Maqsoud and al-Ashrafiyeh neighborhood councils confirmed that no electricity will be cut off from any subscriber because the owners of generators will take the charge of their subscriptions from the municipality at the end of the week immediately.
Bilal revealed that the council is planning to carry out other campaigns to help families to cope with the difficulties of living, according to developments and the extension of the lockdown period, without defining what will be included in those campaigns.