MOSCOW, August 25 (Itar-Tass) — Moscow Region prosecutor Alexander Anikin noted numerous violations of the land law in the province, saying the situation with lawfulness in land issues leaves much to be desired.
“If we recall the Russian classic Mikhail Bulgakov, whose literary character Woland said “the housing issue spoilt Muscovites,” an analogy suggests itself, i.e. the land issue spoilt the Moscow Region,” Anikin said in comments on the results of recent checks conducted by prosecutors.
“We all know that because of land allotment in prestigious and not very prestigious places, corruption flourishes, bribes are given and taken, reputation of many people is ruined, somebody risks his freedom, and some lose their health or even life, because different situations happen in re-division of land.
“It is citizens, and the interests of the state and society that suffer from it.
“An analysis of the situation with lawfulness and prosecutor’s supervision in the Moscow Region shows that local self-rule bodies commit numerous violations of the effective legislation in land management.
“The procedures to allocate land plots do not meet the requirements for effectiveness, justice, openness and transparency, which violates the rights of citizens and legal entities to receiving land plots, and the property interests of the state and municipalities in connection with shortfalls in revenue from land sales at auctions,” the prosecutor said.
He acknowledged that one conference would not resolve the problem. “We must shape the ways of resolving this problem,” he underlined.
Head of the department for compliance with land legislation Mikhail Malinovsky said Moscow Region prosecutors had exposed more than 1,500 violations of land legislation in the past six months. These include exceeding of authority by local self-rule bodies in issuing legal acts, irregularities in allotting land plots for housing construction, registration, and changing land category, as well as violations of sanitary and epidemiological norms when allotting land for housing construction.
According to prosecutors, local authorities, in violation of the Land Code, publish information on receiving applications from citizens in “special issues” of newspapers that are not sold to the general public. In the Solnechnogorsk district, a pre-investigation check was launched in connection with the fact that information on land plot lease was published in the newspaper Novy Senezh, which is unavailable on sale or subscription.
“Where is it printed?” regional prosecutor Alexander Anikin said.
In the north, in Yoshkar Ola; it is delivered to households from there, Malinovsky replied.
Similar violations were exposed by the Kolomna, Podolsk and Stupino prosecutor’s offices.
Local authorities, exploiting a lack of information in the state registry of real estate on the borders of the zones with special terms of use, allocate land without abiding by the effective restrictions, and permit changing the form of land use in historical and cultural sites and other specially protected areas.
Housing construction in the territory of the Borodino military-historical museum preserve might serve as an example.
The Mozhaisk prosecutor’s office already forwarded ten protests to prosecutors against the resolutions by local officials.
Malinovsky noted that illegal construction of high-rise apartment buildings became widespread on the land intended for individual housing and dacha construction. Unjustified delays in the investigation into the cases over violations of land legislation remain a problem.