Kahketian farmers have informed the Human Rights Center that the local government demands they paid the plot lease earlier than the previously agreed term.
According to the current legislature, the farmers can pay only 20 % of the plot rent until the end of the year. However, representatives of local government state that the farmers must pay the lease totally in order to fulfill the budget. Naturally those farmers who have not harvested and sold agricultural products can not pay the rent. Nonetheless, the local government says that it will cancel the lease agreement if they don’t pay up.
All the projects for Kakheti region municipalities have been stopped as there is no money in the budget. The organizations funded from the local budget received money for the employers’ salaries two weeks later than what was scheduled.
Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti