Kamianets District Farmers Won Land-War

The district executive committee was forced to allocate 50 hectares of land to a farming family.

The Kamianets regional executive committee proposed 50 hectares of land to farmers Halina and Mikalai Barsuk, who had been previously seized the allocated land by the local authorities. Halina Barsuk informed tut.by about that. Earlier, the story about the officials in Kamianets district seizing farmers' land was widely covered in independent media.

The new plot was allocated from the land of OJSC Ahra-Niva. The conditions are satisfactory to the farmers.

"There would be no movement without the article in the media," – Halina Barsuk informed.

The woman notes that all the necessary papers are now being drawn up for moving the farm enterprise AdarkaYan to the new land. It is expected that on October 23, a corresponding decision will be made at the meeting of the district executive committee.

We remind that Halina and Mikalai registered the farm enterprise AdarkaYan in 2014. They grew carrots, potatoes on the first four allocated hectares and sold them to retail chains.

In 2016, Halina and Mikalai Barsuk appealed to the local authorities asking to provide them with a plot of land. By the decision of the district executive committee, in September they were allocated 43.4 hectares of land near the village of Yuvsichy. This territory was formerly owned by the JSC Belavezhski. In 2007, the enterprise registered the plot for commercial farming. In August 2016, the JSC Belavezhski backed out of the land. The reason was its remoteness from the main plots of the enterprise, which minimized the profitability of its use. On September 14, 2016, the Kamianets regional executive committee seized that land from the company and handed it over to the farm AdarkaYan.

On September 21, 2016, the couple got a land registration certificate, but when they arrived on the site, they found that about a third of their land was occupied by the neighboring farm – the JSC Kaliankovichy.

The farmers appealed to the district executive committee. The authorities considered the land dispute in favor of the JSC Kaliankovichy. On April 20, 2017, the local authorities canceled their decision on granting AdarkaYan the land plot. As indicated in the decision of the Kamianets District Executive Committee, the plot that belonged to the JSC Belavezhski, "was permanently used by the JSC Kaliankovichy for farming in its historically established borders."

Until October 1, the farmers were only allowed to use that part of the plot that was not occupied by the agricultural enterprise – 29.41 hectares of land, and after the land was to be handed over to the OJSC Savushkina Pushcha – the JSC Kaliankovichy now belongs to the OJSC Savushkin Praduct.

The farmers tried to appeal against that decision of the district authorities via the prosecutor's office, the regional executive committee and the court. However, they could not win the land-war. After the farmers’ story was published in the press, the situation attracted the attention of the republican officials and the local authorities backed up, having allocated some land to the farmers.