Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has promised that the government will find funds in the national budget to pay pensions to those who took part in the cleanup work after the accident at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
"The national budget will provide funds to be allocated to resolve this issue," Azarov said during the hours of questions for the government at the parliament’s morning session on Friday.
He also recalled that the Cabinet of Ministers established a working group to address the issues related to the payment of pensions to Chornobyl cleanup workers.
When asked by one of MPs, why, in violation of the constitution, the execution of court rulings to pay pensions to Chornobyl cleanup workers and other categories of citizens had been suspended, Azarov said that under the constitution, all the outlays of the budget are regulated solely by the law of the state budget, and that it doesn’t envisage the expenditures for any specific purpose, so these ruling cannot be implemented.
