Taxi drivers followed and fined in Dilijan city for driving without licence
Hamlet Badalyan, a resident of Armenia’s Dilijan city, receives a monthly pension of AMD 37 000, but he takes home only AMD 26 000. Thirty percent of the pension (AMD11 000) is kept by the state. “I have to pay a fine in the amount of AMD 55 000, and they keep AMD 11 000 of my pension every month to cover the fine. They are so kind as to leave money for me to be able to buy daily bread,” Badalyan said to A1+. The man was fined last October for driving a private vehicle without a licence. Hamlet Badalyan says every driver has to pay AMD 60 000, including monthly due of AMD 8 000, to have a meter fitted within the vehicle, as well as for a licence. At the same time, he reminds everyone that it is not profitable to work as a cabman in Dilijan, where the number of population has reduced from 30 000 to 10 000 and people can hardly make both ends meet. “I do not drive a taxi any more. I was unemployed and decided to drive a taxi, but I understood that one could not earn money in that way. Very often, I had to wait for hours until a client would show up,” he said. Badalyan is angered by the fact that he was not shown any document to sign but later he learned that he had been fined. “This is plunder on a state level. The prime minister has issued an internal order and Gagik Beglaryan is executing that order,” he said. The angered citizen says he knows at least ten people in Dilijan who have appeared in the same situation. “It turns out that we are the enemies of this state; they follow us and shoot us secretly,” he said in conclusion.
