Trbina in NS: “Look Gary, you can’t!” (VIDEO, PHOTO) – Economy

Tribune “Novi Sad in the water? Look, Gary, he can’t ”, was held tonight.

Novi Sad residents gathered to hear about “another corrupt and non-transparent project in Novi Sad, where public property is being destroyed for the good of the interests of powerful people related to the government,” organizers said in a statement. .

The grandstand was held at the end of Jerneja Kopitara street, in the area in front of the Shipyard, where the construction of a commercial and residential complex is expected.

At the beginning of the rostrum, Milan Vujić addressed the gathering, an activist who, just over a month ago, was attacked for his publicly expressed views.

He said that in the previous eight years, Novi Sad had become a “disgusting place”, where violence is committed not only against people, but also against rivers, parks, forests and cultural heritage. As a reason for this, he affirmed that it is the attitude of the current government towards these assets, which it treats as its prey, with which it can “do whatever it wants.”

“They think that Novi Sad is their place, and a place that serves to satisfy their loathsome desires for power and money,” Vujic said.

The Novi Sad city administration project, “Novi Sad on Water”, involves moving the existing embankment 500 meters into the riverbed. That plan is controversial and devastating, because such a construction project, in the international context, requires the consent of the Budapest-based Danube Commission. In addition, moving the embankment towards the river bed narrows the flowing power of the river and opens up the problem of traffic corridors on the river, said former Novi Sad mayor Borislav Novakovic.

“If a new embankment, made of concrete structures, is installed 500 meters into the river bed, an artificial barrier is created, and each big flood wave hits and returns from that barrier and could flood the Adice settlements, Telep , Veternik and Futog, where the bank of the Danube is very porous and an ecological problem opens, because Šodroš and Kamenička ada are the lungs of Novi Sad, with 130 hectares of forest ”.

“The key question is whether the citizens or the construction mafia have the right to the Danube bank. If it is achieved, the Danube bank stops at the shipyard and the marina, and from that moment, those who have money to paying for one square meter can enjoy that part of the riverbank and others cannot. That is why this plan is catastrophic and unacceptable, “concludes Novaković.

The architect Dragoljub Bakić points out that it is about “one and the same brothers, who in the conquering enthusiasm, taverns and skulls of Serbian cities, convinced themselves that they have the right to do so, because they won the elections and won the spoils of their party “and they called Belgrade empty” a mistake in a mistake. “

“Everyone who desecrates our rivers and nature every day must be on the line. We got to the point where they take our air and poison the soil. Profession and hoe is our solution,” said Aleksandar Jovanović Ćuta of the initiative ” Let’s defend the rivers of the old mountain. “

Bojana Bodroža, an assistant professor at the Novi Sad Faculty of Philosophy, believes that “Novi Sad in the water” is an issue that concerns all citizens of Novi Sad.

He pointed out that there are a large number of civic initiatives that were launched because the city was kidnapped by the citizens, because “the people in power understand the word government as property, not as management of the public good that belongs to everyone.”

“Šodroš, Dunavac, Kamenička ada, it’s a hidden gem that many residents of Novi Sad don’t know about. Those of us who have lived here for several decades, we know every corner. They want to take that away from us, and we won’t give it to them,” said the president of the Vojvodina Green Network, Olivera Radovanović, added that “Novi Sad is in the water against people and nature.”

According to the moderator of the forum, Nedim Sejdinović, the construction of the “megalomaniac project – Novi Sad on water” is problematic for several reasons, and among other things, because it is a project that puts in the foreground the benefit of entrepreneurs or investors and completely ignores needs. and citizen demands ”.

The problem is that an international competition for this project has not been announced, which must take into account the needs of the citizens and the needs of the city of Novi Sad, “Sejdinović said in a statement to Danas.

He pointed out that the problem is that the project is “dangerous” because it can lead to serious problems in the flooded area of ​​Novi Sad, that is. until the Danube overflows “and Novi Sad is left without lungs, so” a large number of citizens will be left without a place to walk or for recreation and fishing “, and at the same time represents a kind of ecocide , because it is a place where you build, the Šodroš and Kamenička ada area, a place where a large number of protected species live and which represents a true wealth of biodiversity, flora and fauna.

“Seen from all sides, this project is problematic,” Sejdinovic said.

Architect Darko Reba and Dr. Boris Popov from the Novi Sad Faculty of Philosophy also spoke at the meeting.

Organizers called on citizens to help Novi Sad activists who are fighting so that “the river bank is not destroyed as a similar project in Belgrade did.”

The forum was organized by the “New Optimism” movement and the Novi Sad Center for Sustainable Communities, with the support of the Open Society Foundation.

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