Satellite antennas can’t be legalised in Minsk
- 19.11.2008, 8:28
An official instruction on installing satellite antennas hasn’t been issued in Belarus so far. However, it turns out that it exists. For example, no antennas have been installed in the Pershamaiski district of Minsk since the beginning of the year.
It is planned to transfer to digital TV by 2012 and abandon analogous TV in Belarus. Many Minsk dwellers don’t agree to wait for so much and choose satellite TV right now. But the city authorities proclaimed war against satellite dishes last year, allegedly they spoil city architecture. They promised to work out a procedure of antenna legalising for those who are going to install and who are have been using dishes for a long time. Court may order to remove antennas installed without legal permits.
An official instruction hasn’t appeared. However, it turns out that it exists! A reader of “Komsomolskaya Pravda v Belarusi” was given a handout with instructions at a meeting on antenna installing with the administration of the Pershamaiski district of Minsk.
– I tried to install a dish in a legal way. According to the instructions, I sent an application to the housing department, – Yauheny Sarebrany told. – But it was denied, as there is no project of antenna installing. But nothing can be done without permission of the authorities! I asked a chief architect of the district to give me address of an engineering company. He said to look for it in an advertising paper. I phoned to some private and state-run companies, but they just laughed at me. The project I need is four screws and an angle bracket!
Yauheny Sarebrany applied to all instances: the housing department, the housing maintenance organisation, the architecture committee of the Pershamaiski district... “Your windows face Independence Avenue. You won’t be allowed to install a dish,” he was told in an unofficial conversation. And he was advised to go to the housing department for permission.
No antennas have been installed in the Pershamaiski district of Minsk since the beginning of the year
The architecture committee doesn’t have statistical data on satellite antennas installing and removing.
– People applied us at the beginning of the year, – the department of alterations of the housing maintenance organisation of the Pershamaiski district. – But when they learnt about a number of approvals they needed, they decided to look for an engineering organisation, owing a licence on satellite dish installing. But nobody came to us with a project of installation.