ARKHANGELSK, December 13. /TASS/. The Komi Region's Governor Vladimir Uiba suggested having a federal program for prompt resettlement of residents from the Far North - those who have been waiting for their turn since the early 2000s. Presently, 17,000 families in the Komi Region are waiting for resettlement, where 9.000 are disabled and retirees, the governor said during a meeting on development of the Russian Arctic Zone's backbone settlements, which President Vladimir Putin chaired in Arkhangelsk.

"We have a goal to resettle people from the Arctic, from the North, first of all from Vorkuta and Inta. People have been waiting for resettlement since the early 2000s. We are talking about 17,000 families, and if we resettle them at the current rate, it will take us 100 years. Nobody can be happy about this. Moreover, among those 17,000, there are 9,000 disabled people and retirees. We would very much like to ask, and it is [important] for many territories, to have a federal program developed for the advanced resettlement of residents from the Far North," he said.

The governor asked for federal financial support for prompt resettlement from emergency housing. "Regarding the houses that, like you've said, have fallen sideways. <...> Indeed, houses are aging faster than the resettlement program is moving. Within just two years, we have taken 1 billion rubles ($11 million) from our own revenues [of the regional budget] and have been relocating people <…> We are pushing this program at our own expense, and here it is impossible to do without support from the federal center," he added.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the federal government to work together with the Komi government on the region's social and economic development program and to determine its financial sources.