Over 240,000 citizens of Chechnya are jobless

According to the spokesman of the Chechen Ministry of Labour, in 2011 the emphasis in the fight on unemployment will be placed on development of small businesses.

"As of last December, the count of unemployed persons in the republic was 243,000, or 36.3 percent of the total capable population," said an employee of the Labour Ministry of Chechnya.

According to his story, the accent in the programme to fight unemployment will be made on the complex of measures to promote self-employment of the unemployed population. "This is the payment of grants in the amount of 50,000 roubles to unemployed persons," he said.

The spokesman of the Ministry has noted that most of jobless persons take subsidies for livestock breeding and business of private taxi drivers. Those, who receive subsidies, lose their right to receive unemployment benefits.

Meanwhile, the receivers of these subsidies argue that they had to spend a lot of time and bear certain expenses in order to get the amount.

"I was told that I can receive the money under the condition that I leave 4000 roubles. That is, in fact, instead of announced 50,000 they give us 46,000," said Shakhran T., a local resident.

"I decided to breed cattle, as I have all conditions for that," said Khasan I., another resident of the republic. "I submitted all the documents back in autumn, but so far there's no progress."

See earlier reports: "In Chechnya, "Spetsstroy" bosses promise to pay wage debts to workers", "In Chechnya, over 63,000 families received maternity capital certificates", "Chechen authorities plan to pay compensations for lost housing to over 5000 residents by the end of this year".