The recent hurricanes Emma and Daniella have brought a great deal of snow to the country and added to road and traffic chaos, affecting both the work of the police and the efficiency of services

The traffic police department of Minsk’s Pervomaisky District recently organised a live оn-line ‘raid’ showing the removal of cars from a highway that were hampering the snow clearing machines. Social network users and onliner.by saw the road workers in real time; they were also able to see how cars were transported from one place to another. Meanwhile, vehicles which were parked illegally were taken to a parking compound where they will only be released on payment of a fee.

According to the initiator of the raid, the press secretary of the traffic police department of Minsk’s Pervomaisky District, Yekaterina Zhurimskaya, the programme enjoyed high ratings. Many viewers commented: ‘it’s unbelievable how people can park cars in this way?’, ‘thank you for help’, ‘it’s now easier to use the roads and drive freely’.  This is not the first time that the traffic police have assisted road and communal services. In Minsk’s Pervomaisky District alone, up to twenty cars are removed daily, with around 10-15 taken to a compound. “The traffic police has launched 24h monitoring of the state of our roads,” Ms. Zhurimskaya said. “We also control road and communal services, work to clean snow and ice from roads. In peak hours, our patrol cars accompany snow cleaning machinery on major highways.”

This year, citizens have been active in helping to cope with the snow as never before. The Minsk City Executive Committee has used mail shots to ask people to help: after storm Daniella and Emma, each mobile communication subscriber received a message with a request to clean the area near their cars of snow.  The feeling of personal responsibility was high. In my area alone, eight young men cleaned the parking lot and pavements after Daniella. After Emma, I enjoyed the sight of schoolchildren assisting street sweepers.