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At the end of the State Council meeting the President asked Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko to review the performance of the housing and utilities sector in the winter of 2002–2003 and the Government’s measures to prepare for the next season.

Mr Khristenko said that during the past winter there had been more than a thousand cuts of heating supply and disruptions in heating and power supply systems. About 400,000 people had been affected, about 4,500 residential blocks of flats and other buildings, and some 350 social amenities had been left without heating.

The Deputy Prime Minister cited statistics, which showed that most of the accidents were due to the rundown state of the networks and the heating equipment, breaches of rules and carelessness of the personnel, as well as because the engineering infrastructure was not ready for the heating season. Only 11% of the malfunctions were directly caused by adverse weather.

The state has earmarked considerable amounts in the 2003 federal budget to ensure the work of the housing and utilities sector in the coming autumn and winter season.

Mr Putin noted in this connection that the Government was aware of its responsibility for the status of the power industry and of the need to subsidise the people entitled to benefits and federal legal entities when paying utility rates.

At the same time much of the responsibility rests with the local authorities. The head of state called on the governors to make the best possible use of the money allocated for the housing and utilities sector for the winter season.

The President also said that the Government would get one more Deputy Prime Minister who would coordinate the housing and utilities and infrastructure development at the federal level. The President signed a decree appointing St Petersburg Governor Vladimir Yakovlev as Deputy Prime Minister.

Under another presidential decree, which establishes a fixed number of Deputy Prime Ministers, the Prime Minister will now have six deputies, including Minister of Agriculture and Finance Minister.