ARTSAKHPRESS: A number of urgent issues related to ensuring the vital needs of the population in the conditions of the ongoing Azerbaijani blockade were discussed at the Operational Headquarters’ meeting held today under the chairmanship of Artsakh State Minister and Head of the Operational Headquarters, Ruben Vardanyan.
The process of introducing the coupon system in Artsakh was presented at the session. It was noted that the technical and organizational work of issuing coupons for the sale of a group of essential food products were carried out according to the established timeframe. Starting today, the sale of five types of food products with coupons has started in 200 stores in the capital Stepanakert and 400 in the regions. Necessary food products were supplied to stores from the state reserve. In parallel, monitoring of prices and the current situation will be carried out by the respective state committees.
The Minister of State considered it necessary to distribute the food products to the trading points as evenly as possible. In response, it was informed that before the blockade, 400 stores were serviced by suppliers in Artsakh, and the remaining stores were reselling, whereas now, in order to ensure proportional distribution and uniformity of prices, the number of stores serviced by suppliers has been increased, reaching 600.
During the meeting, the situation related to energy supply in Artsakh was also presented. It was reported to remain tense. Due to scheduled power outages and lack of natural gas supply, the number of accidents in the energy system of Artsakh has increased, as a result of which there are also violations of power supply schedules from time to time. The Minister of State instructed to submit recommendations aimed at regulating the situation under the existing conditions.
Also, he instructed to sum up the proposals for further ensuring the livelihood of Artsakh’s population and overcoming the humanitarian crisis, to be presented to the Security Council for discussion.
