Mikael Melkumyan: It will be easier for night club owners to pay a fine and do nothing (video)
The National Assembly today started discussing the package of draft amendments to the RA Law on Trade and Services. It was presented by Acting Deputy Economic Development and Investment Minister Tigran Khachatryan. According to the project, special conditions are provided for a strip club, sauna, disco, karaoke, and so on, for keeping silence at night: "This kind of activity will be banned next to state, local administrative and residential areas and scientific institutions. The permission will be given by the community leader. Distance from residential areas will be accommodated. State duties will be set for this functionality: the minimum state duty - from AMD 10 to 500 thousand. Fines will be differentiated by 50-100 thousand times, in case of repetition - AMD 200-300 thousand, in case of strip club - 300-500 thousand times, and in case of repeat - AMD 1-3 million. We have set three hours limitation - 22:00-7:00, 00-7:00, and so on. In case of violation, AMD 40,000 will be fined as warning, and then we suggest 200-300 thousand times." NA Vice Speaker Mikael Melkumyan, asking him a question, noticed: "It turns out that during the previous years, the activities of the local self-government bodies have hampered the people's rest, they have not made any pro-governmental steps. How did you realize to make such changes? I want you to give a political assessment to the local self-government." In response, Tigran Khachatryan said: "It's not that social life was not settled. In the sense of adjusting the problems in practice, the quality of the settings will be substantially increased. " The secretary of the Yelk faction Gevorg Gorgisyan, in his turn, said: "I think it will be easier for club owners to pay a fine and do nothing. Let me note that there are strip clubs nearby schools. How will this law be applied to existing clubs? " "They will be given one year to move," answered Tigran Khachatryan. "People visiting those clubs have already learned that place and it will be better to the owners of clubs, as well as to the local self-government, to pay a fine every month, and thus close the issue," said Gevorg Gorgisyan. The Tsarukyan alliance MP Vardan Bostanjyan hardened the discussion. "If there are mentally ill people who want to sit and watch how others get naked, then let them pay a lot of money and watch. Or it would be even better if they closed such clubs." And the HHK faction MP Hayk Babukhanyan announced that in particular, karaoke clubs made so much noise that windows rattle, and it was impossible to sleep.
