The Prime Minister visits fire-ravaged areas of Ilia

[Ellinas]

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis on Saturday chaired a meeting at Ilia prefecture, western Peloponnese, with the objective the implementation of measures for the reconstruction and restoration of the wildfire-affected regions of the prefecture. Present at the meeting were National Defense Minister Evangelos Meimarakis, Agricultural Development and Foods Minister Alexandros Kontos, Western Greece Regional Prefect Spyros Spyridon, Ilia Prefect Haralambos Kafyras and the 13 mayors whose municipalities sustained damage from the August wildfires. After the meeting, Karamanlis departed for the town of Zaharo where he also chaired a meeting on the implementation of measures for the restoration of the fire-affected area.

"Our commitments are valid to the utmost. I want to send a clear message that our concern is here. The procedures for 6,000 jobs, through the Manpower Employment Organization (OAED) will proceed speedily. A forest will again grow, however many years it takes.The government is determined to implement every available potential from national and EU funds for the reconstruction. It’s a national need for the inhabitants of the region to remain in their place so as to continue activities. What precedes is the fastest possible payment for the damages, for the resetting up of the plant and stock-breed capital for the securing of the incomes of the farmers and stockbreeders so that they can again enter production," Karamanlis said in statements after the meeting in Zaharo.

Finally, on the lighting of the Olympic Flame, Karamanlis assured that "by the end of the year the work for the cleaning and preservation of Ancient Olympia’s antiquities will have been completed. In March, the ceremony of the lighting of the Olympic Flame for the Beijing Games will take place in an environment which will correspond positively to the area’s history."

The prime minister later in the day visited Ancient Olympia where he went to the Town Hall and was welcomed by Mayor George Aidonis and then toured the wildfire-affected forest region surrounding the site.

ANA