Siberian activists to plant flowers in potholes

Tomsk (Russia), May 27 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Activists in the Siberian city of Tomsk will plant flowers in the deepest potholes in the city's streets in a bid to draw the municipal authorities' attention to the dire condition of the roads, the Tomsk Roads movement said Monday.

The planting campaign will be the second stage of the movement's campaign to force the authorities to repair the city's roads, Tomsk Roads' leader Igor Sashov said. Activists began by ringing all the potholes on the city roads with paint, he said.

So far, the "the municipal authorities have not reacted at all" to the movement's protests, Sashov said, prompting the movement to start "planting flowers in particularly deep potholes in the streets".

Road construction and repair in Russia is notoriously inefficient, with funds allocated for road maintenance often embezzled or misused. The quality of the road surface in many parts of the country remains extremely poor, even when highways are frequently repaired.

--IANS/RIA Novosti

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