In Adjara Region Population Faces the Danger of Losing Their Plots

“Let them leave the land to us, or we will have to force the government for medicine and bread…"

The Administrative border of Batumi is being widened. The villages of Khelvachauri, Sarfi, Gonio, Mtsvane Kontskhi and others will join the city of Batumi. The villagers are afraid that they will be deprived of their lands and the plots will be privatized.

Initially, the Batumi administrative territory was registered in 1925 and the total area of the city was 1650 acres. In the nearest future, the City Hall and the Municipality will decide to widen Batumi.  Based on the project, the villages surrounding Batumi will be included into the city.

Eighty-year old Israfil Zakaradze is not against the proposed changes. He does not refuse to be a city dweller. However, he believes that the principal value of his land should not be deprived.

“My child, my family and other peasants need this land to support our families as well as the people living in the cities. This man will not be able to live without the land. Is it right? They should not take our plots and turn my village into a city. We need the plot to earn money for medicine and bread; otherwise we will have to ask the government for help.”

Twenty-five years old Natia Tavdgiridze thinks unlike some of the old people. She thinks that the villages must not join the city. “Those people who live at the seaside And do not have large plots, might join the city. But Khelvachauri and other villages where people are cultivating  their land should not join  the city. If they join it, they will lose the leased lands. The villagers will not put up with that situation.”

The fear incited throughout the population is that there poses a real possibility that people may lose their land due to an un-carried out reform on land and the supposable connection to the city. The regional population has leased their plots for years. The peasants are excepting the end of the reform to register their properties.

Although, the deadline of the privatization is exactly defined in the law, the reform on the land has not yet been implemented. The privatization should have been completed by December 31 2006 such as in Kobuleti and Khelvachauri and other regions.

Murman Dumbadze form the political party of “Respublika” does not resist the widening of the city but he also considers the land privatization a problem. “I agree with the idea of widening the city community but this has raised some serious questions that need to be addressed: It is obscure why the laws are not followed and the plots are not registered on peasants? I doubt the government is going to profit from this land.  That means, the plots are unofficially sold or they plan to carry out large-scale privatization of the land that will include the city. As a result the peasants will lose their plots.”

Officials from the Ministry of Finances and Economics of the Adjara Autonomous republic, which is carrying out the privatization in the region, deny the fact that they are going to carry out privatization.

Badri Kajaia, the chairman of the Batumi Municipality does not agree with the fear of oppositionists and the villagers. “The reform will be finished after a year. It is nonsense to suppose that the plot that is registered on a certain person will not be granted to him after the privatization.”

Last year, the Georgian Young Lawyers Association’s Batumi office, carried out monitoring on privatization. Paata Sharadze, the head of the GYLA said that the local government has done nothing to carry out the privatization. “The Municipality did not send us information whether the plots had any boundaries in order to register them to the peasants after privatization. The officials from the Municipality should now have some criteria according to which they will grant the plots to the peasants. We can admit that the local authority has done nothing to carry out the reform and the process will be prolonged for a year.”

Representatives of the GYLA said that there is a danger that the most of the plots in the village of Khelvacharui will not be given to the villagers after the village will be connected with the city.  “The law is breached when the reform is not carried out within the deadline. The Adjara Government should have appealed to the corresponding body for prolonging the duration of the reform before the deadline. Unless the government continues to privatize
, the villagers will really remain without plots.”

Sofo Zhghenti, Batumi