Citizens in Prishtina, capitol of Kosovo, continue to find their way around via address system, for they are not informed about the new names of the streets. Prishtina`s citizen Njazi Biqku, who lives in “Bregu i Diellit” (Sunny Hill), says that while driving his taxi through neighbourhoods, streets and alleys of Prishtina, his main points of orientation are well known landmarks such as former “Rilindja” building, former “Banka e Lubjanës”, Te Plepat, Xhamia e Llapit and others, and he can never use the new names set by the municipality.
Apart from numerous changes, names of the streets have changed in our capital, too. These changes, as reasonable as they may be, are causing difficulties for the inhabitants of the capital, not only because they get confused by names and the addresses, but also because of the fact they may have grown familiar with the old names for some time now.
Biqku says there`s an impression that even the Post Office itself has not clarified the issue of the addresses, thus the deliveries, be it from restaurants or online orders, often end up somewhere else.
Luljeta Selimi has an additional objection.
“There are barely any names of women of the streets and alleys of the capital, when their contribution throughout the history, but also in the development of processes whether societal, political or scientific, is well known”, she says.
Article 2 of Law on the Addresses System, clearly determines the responsibility of municipalities and the duties of Kosovo`s Government in the regulation of the address system in the whole territory of the country. However, this is not so noticeable on the web page of Prishtina Municipality, since one cannot find enough information on the changes of street names. Even the map of the city that is published on this webpage, has not been updated since 2011, despite of numerous changes in these five years. Many apartment complexes, new streets and neighbourhoods were built, that have changed the image of Prishtina.
Miranda Mullafazliu, Public Relations official says that streets in the Municipality of Prishtina are named by the decision of the Assembly of the Municipality of Prishtina.
“The lists consists of names of martyrs, heroes, artists, local or international authors, important historic dates, names of places, personalities who have contributed for peace in the world, culture, science, etc”, she said.
She confirms only “about 5 percent of the streets bear the name of women”, while the reason for this remains unclarified.
Puhiza Bekolli
