Ombudsman Diana Kovacheva

Diana Kovacheva was born in Sofia in 1975. She graduated in law from Sofia University "St. Kliment sent a statement to the chairman of the Sofia Municipal Council, Georgi Georgiev, in which he requested that the new tariff policy for public transport in Sofia be revised, so that keep the transport documents, which give more flexible travel options to public transport users.

The occasion is the new public consultations initiated this month on the Draft Ordinance to amend and supplement the Ordinance on the terms and conditions for travel by public urban transport on the territory of the Capital Municipality, caused by the great public dissatisfaction.

The ombudsman has warned that the institution has received complaints from pensioners regarding their exclusion from the right to travel with long-term personalized transport documents for preferential travel, which they state as discrimination.

"According to Art.

29, para.

1, item 1 of the Ordinance on the terms and conditions for travel by public urban transport on the territory of the Metropolitan Municipality, only persons receiving a pension under the terms of ch.

VI of the Social Insurance Code, who have reached the age of majority under Art.

68, para.

1 - 3 of the same code – the general principle for retirement / for example, women aged 60 years and 10 m. and social security service 35 years and 2 m., the ombudsman indicates the general principle.

Prof. Kovacheva lists the excluded pensioners - according to Art.

68a of the CSR - one year earlier than the required age, having the required insurance experience;

according to Art.

69 from CSR - military personnel /age 52 years and 10 months and 27 years of social security experience/;

according to Art.

69b of CSR - working under the conditions of the first and second category of labor;

according to Art.

69c of CSR - teachers, etc.

She is categorical that such a restriction is unfair and unjustified, because in this way it deprives them of the right to travel under preferential conditions, which is granted to another group, and the difference between them is only in the conditions for acquiring the right to a pension.

Therefore, he proposes that chapter IV of the Ordinance include all pensioners, regardless of the method of acquiring the right to a pension.

"I express my confidence that the Metropolitan Municipal Council will consider all the problems raised and decisions will be made that are consistent with the transportation needs of the citizens of the capital and their right to accessible and convenient public transportation," the ombudsman wrote.

In his opinion, the ombudsman expressed support for the amendments related to the recovery of lost transport documents, such as the monthly card for one line of ground transport, the monthly card for the metro and the monthly card for one line of ground transport (or metro) for students.

Kovacheva is adamant that the loss of the specified vehicle documents has caused mass dissatisfaction among the citizens, who in their reports to her want their restoration.

"As I have already expressed an opinion, the right of travelers to choose between different transport documents according to their specific needs should not be taken away," the ombudsman wrote.

Diana Kovacheva

Diana Kovacheva was born in Sofia in 1975. She graduated in law from Sofia University "St. Kliment, however, stresses that the planned changes do not include the restoration of another transport document widely used by citizens, such as the 10-trip ticket.

According to her, this ticket meets the transport needs of another category of passengers - those who travel incidentally by public transport, as well as guests of the capital, which is why she insists on its restoration.

"I also think that the 30+ ticket should be rethought and become 45+ because many people complain that their travel time is not enough.

An increase in the number of passengers using public transport can only happen through a tariff policy tailored to their needs," the ombudsman emphasizes.

Diana Kovacheva

Diana Kovacheva was born in Sofia in 1975. She graduated from the Sofia University "St. Kliment adds that

.

"As it was noted in previous opinions of the ombudsman, the new price of BGN 10 for the card for people with disabilities does not take into account the difficulties of citizens in the conditions of serious inflation and a deteriorated economic environment," the national public defender also emphasizes.

In addition, Prof. Kovacheva writes: "I support the changes that affect the exclusion from the obligation of validation, as a condition for regularity, of long-term transport documents / art.

11, para.

1/, as well as cancellation of the fine for an invalid transport document / art.

46, para.

3/.

I have already presented the arguments for this to you."

However, she draws attention to the proposed amendment in Art.

18, para.

1 of the Ordinance, according to which when traveling with public urban transport vehicles, passengers are required to validate their vehicle documents and comply with the provisions of this Ordinance.

In his opinion, the Ombudsman emphasizes that this text contradicts Art.

11, para.

1, therefore it should be specified that it is about short-term transport documents and adds that this also applies to the addition of Art.

15, para.

1, item 1 - before the word "trips" is written "validated".

Regarding the validation, Diana Kovacheva

Diana Kovacheva was born in Sofia in 1975. She graduated from the Sofia University "St. Kliment" and is categorical that, in addition to imposing obligations on travelers, the quality, accessibility and efficiency of the introduced ticket system must be improved.

She also lists some specific problems of the people with whom she was referred - the non-working validators in the vehicles;

the difficulty of validating the paper, more expensive ticket sold by the vehicle driver;

siphoning money from people's electronic wallets and bank cards.

City transport in Sofia became more expensive with the changes

"Since one of the reasons for validation in the Report is passenger accident insurance, what happens when an insured event occurs in these cases - when a ticket is not validated due to a malfunctioning device, for example," asks the ombudsman.

The National Public Defender draws attention to another fact - when a citizen validates a paper ticket, he must place it at a certain angle to the validating device, otherwise it cannot be validated.

"I ask the question - are there indications of this in the vehicle?"

The answer is: no.

Not everyone knows and can watch the special clip of CGM about this," Diana Kovacheva points out

Diana Kovacheva was born in Sofia in 1975. She graduated in law at Sofia University "St. Kliment.

She also emphasizes that affected citizens signal that money has been withdrawn from their bank cards, which are in their bags, to buy a ticket, and this happens when passing in front of the validating device.

"They find out about this from a subsequent SMS from the bank serving them, which means that if they do not have such a bank service applied for, they may never find out about the withdrawn amounts.

That is, there is a need to protect citizens against this unlawful draining of funds, to take immediate actions to improve the technical serviceability of the electronic billing system," Prof. Kovacheva is emphatic.

Diana Kovacheva