KULOB, January 30, 2010, Asia-Plus — Heads of branches of six banks in Khatlon’s Kulob zone have denied rumors about compulsory deductions from labor migrants’ remittances for the Roghun hydroelectricity project as “absolutely unfounded.
They remarked this at a news conference in Kulob on January 29. According to them, these rumors have reached labor migrants in Russia that allegedly resulted in remittances sent to the region slightly decreasing in late January.
We will recall that Umed Tohirov, human rights activist working in Moscow, said in a letter sent to Asia-Plus on January 22 that according to information received from labor migrants, a certain amount is deducted from remittances they send to banks in Tajikistan for their relatives to the fund to support the construction of the Roghun HPP. The Amonatbonk (Tajikistan’s savings bank) head Mahmadamin Mahmadaminov denied that information in his interview with Asia-Plus on January 25.
In the meantime, sale of shares in Roghun is under way in the Kulob zone. More than 23 million somoni worth of Roghun shares have been sold in the area by January 20, Abdukarim Nematov, head of the branch of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) in Kulob, said.
