Jakhongir Artikhodjayev speaks about demolition problems, corruption, criticism and his salary

Khokim of Tashkent Jakhongir Artikhodjayev gave the Alter Ego program an interview. The khokim spoke about the problems of demolition, corruption, criticism and his salary.

Touching upon criticism, the Artikhodjayev said that negative opinions come from some people, but not from the whole nation. He also expressed his opinion on corruption.

“I do not think that this is the opinion of all the people, residents of Tashkent. If I felt a negative atmosphere, I could not walk freely. It seems to me that those who speak negatively about the khokim are doing it on purpose. Many people want corruption to remain, it has become main source of their income. Therefore, it is profitable for them to speak ill about me. But I do not pay much attention to it, I just continue to work on. This negative has always benefited me,” the khokim said.

While speaking of demolitions, he said that people were accustomed to live in peace.

“Our people are accustomed to living peacefully, measuredly, they were not ready for the reforms that Shavkat Mirziyoyev began. After my appointment as a khokim, I had to show my work. I began to act quickly, as the president demands, as people want, in order to change the economic situation in the country. I began to work actively, it turned out that people are not yet ready for drastic changes. So, here I was a little mistaken and the people reacted sharply. My intentions were to bring Tashkent to the next stage of development,” he noted.

Additionally, the khokim said that he has a salary of 3.2 million soums.

According to Artikhodjayev, there is no need to hurry in development of the Master Plan.

“They also demolished and built before me, then the Master Plan did not exist either. The Master Plan is similar to democracy: it is not done in one day, it needs to be created over the years. Therefore, we need patience. In my opinion, there are a lot of empty places and parks in Tashkent. If I give all the empty places to entrepreneurs, there will be no parks soon and Tashkent will become densely populated,” he said.

The capital’s leader also said that according to the statistics in Tashkent, more trees were cut down earlier than now.

“Poachers have engaged in cutting trees. They come from other regions. It has become a guaranteed business for them. If you have noticed, there are practically no trees left in Namangan and Fergana. We caught some poachers at posts, even visited the valley. We found their workshops. Many poachers specifically filmed the cuttings and said that the khokim allowed it. I could not solve this problem 100%. We are now looking for new methods to deal with them,” he said.

The full interview can be watched here: