CAMERAS and police guards will monitor Stará tehelňa suburb in Prešov where, officially, more than 1,700 people live in 176 apartments.
Town officials say the measures are designed to increase the security of residents in the suburb and surrounding houses, the daily SME reported.
The town wants to set up a police station in a building that in 2003 was sold to the civic association Romar for a symbolic sum of one Slovak crown, according to the daily.
The association was supposed to provide social and educational services for the local Roma. The daily estimates that there are about 2,000 Roma living in the suburb, in which the unemployment rate is virtually 100 percent.
The town's representatives recently voted to cancel the contract with the Romar association and turn the building into a police station. They argued that Romar was not providing the services that they guaranteed in their agreement.
Local deputy František Husovský said he had proposed a complex solution for the suburb, including providing a kindergarten, elementary school, physician, pastoral services, and shops.
- Martina Jurinová
