Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou on Monday met with the President of the Union of Cyprus Communities, Andreas Kitromilides.

At the meeting, the pair spoke about local government reform, with both Ioannou and Kitromilides agreeing that the “clustering” of mukhtars’ jurisdictions is “progressing as scheduled.”

Ioannou said the clustering of their jurisdiction is being carried out with “the purpose of adequately staffing villages and the creation of the correct structures of local governance with suitable and qualified staff.”

To this end, he said the reforms will allow villages to operate “based on the correct and legal procedures, providing rural citizens with better quality services.”

He added that “at the same time, through a fairer distribution of state funding, the goal is the implementation of development projects, which will improve residents’ quality of life.”

He said that to achieve this, the government intends to revise the housing plans for the revitalisation of mountainous, critical, and disadvantaged and rural areas, which were most recently set out in 2019.

The revision, he said, is due to be completed in March, with the amendments set to take effect from April.

In addition, he said the government is “considering ways to differentiate the criteria for granting the support allowance for residents of mountainous communities.”

This differentiation, he said, is hoped to “give incentives to existing and potential new residents of mountainous areas,” and will allow a wider proportion of society to access that financial support.