LOWER HOUSE DISCUSSES BILL ON RECONSTRUCTION

ZAGREB, Feb 28 (Hina) - A proposed program for the return of displaced people and the bill on reconstruction triggered a wider discussion at the Wednesday session of the Croatian Sabor (parliament) Lower House. The discussion will continue on Thursday. The bills were elaborated by Minister of Reconstruction Jure Radic. The plan was to rehabilitate over 130,000 homes, having in mind the reconstruction of infrastructure and a series of other things, Radic said, specifying that the former system of crediting the reconstruction would be altered by non-repayable budget funds. Speaking on behalf of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) bench, Drago Krpina criticized the system of local self-government in the liberated areas and "unjustified absence if the central authority in these areas". Josko Kovac of the Croatian Peasants' Party said his party supported the return, but recalled that some of them had already adapted themselves in their new domiciles, particularly in large cities. "We will hardly be able to make them return to their old villages," he said. Damir Kajin of the Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS) urged for a strict control over budget's reconstruction expenditures, while Snjezana Biga-Friganovic of the Social Democratic Party said that an exhaustive report on the situation in the liberated areas should necessarily precede the second reading of the Bill on reconstruction. (Hina) bk 282325 MET feb 96