Before the elections, 13 villages in Shida Kartli region received status of mountainous zone

Lado Bitchashvili, Shida Kartli

Kere village in Gori municipality, which is located alongside the division line, is one of those 13 villages, whose inhabitants the local government promised to grant the status of the mountainous zone from January 1, 2020. Consequently, they will enjoy the benefits determined under the Law on Mountainous Zone of Georgia. On January 30, 2020, the population of Kere village held protest demonstration to request the promised status of their village and solution of their problems. The government did not keep its promise – the villages have not yet received the status.

“They promised us the status of mountainous zone but did not keep it. They are selling our pastures; they have put up it on the auction and are planning to sell it,” one of the protesters Shalva Kolotashvili said.

Shida Kartli regional governor Giorgi Khojevanishvili made statement about granting the status to the villages in September 2019.

“There are more than 10 villages in Shida Kartli region, whose populations urged for the status of the mountainous zone. Among them are the villages in Gori municipality: Kere, Bershueti and Khurvaleti. The particular activity of the populations of those villages encouraged the government to consider their petition and we decided to take into account their location close to the occupation line and based on the government’s edict, the legislation will be simplified for the villages located close to the occupation line. Namely, they will receive the status if they satisfy at least one criteria and the population will enjoy the privileges envisaged under the status. The legislative amendments bill is ready and the Government of Georgia plans to present it to the Parliament at the autumn session; the respective amendments will enter the law from January 1, 2020,” the Shida Kartli regional governor said in September 2019. 

Humanrights.ge contacted regional governor Giorgi Khojevanishvili and asked why Kere and other villages have not yet received the status.

He said the Government failed to present the legislative amendments to the Parliament during the autumn sessions and they will introduce respective amendments during the spring sessions. The regional governor added that after all these procedures, 13 villages of Shida Kartli region will be on the list of mountainous zone villages. 

“13 villages will receive the status of the mountainous zone in Shida Kartli; among them 11 are in Gori municipality and Kere is one of them; 2 villages will receive the status in Kareli municipality. The Parliament of Georgia has scheduled to examine the proposal during the spring session,” Giorgi Khojevanishvili said.

As the Georgian Dream still maintains majority in the parliament, the chairman of the regional organization of the Republic Party Aleksandre Valiauri states that the government postponed consideration of the issue because of pre-election campaign. 

“When there is extreme poverty in the villages and the government promises locals that their villages will receive the status from January 1, 2020 based on which people will enjoy some benefits, we see that the government uses it for the pre-election campaign and collection of votes. Furthermore, the Kere population has been urging the status since 2018 but nobody listened to them because no elections were scheduled soon,” Valiauri said.

The Shida Kartli regional governor did not arrive in Kere village during the protest demonstration. Gori municipality mayor Konstantine Tavazarashvili met the locals. The village population raised several urgent problems with the government representatives: water, street illumination and roads. The mayor told journalists that the village population voiced the problems, which they plan to resolve throughout 2020. Konstantine Tavzarashvili said that 2020 will be Year of Kere village.