FAS obliges authorities of Zolsky District of KBR to return land to Psynadakha villagers

The Department of the FAS (Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service) for the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) has instructed the administration of the Zolsky District to eliminate violations of the "Law on Competition" in allocation of the land of the former collective farm.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that residents of the village of Psynadakha, Zolsky District, said that they had been illegally deprived of their land plots and property shares in the collective farm reorganized in the 1990s. Thus, most of the land got concentrated in the Limited Liability Company (LLC) "Psynadakha", founded by the former chairman of the collective farm, now a high-ranking official at the Ministry of Agriculture of the KBR.

The village of Psynadakha has 513 households with the population of about 3000, of whom 1900 are capable. Currently, half of those capable are unemployed. 480 households out of 513 have debts for gas supplies in the total amount of 19 million roubles.

The Human Rights Centre of the KBR said that they had addressed on the issue to the republic's government.

Let us remind you that in January this year residents of four villages of the Terek Region applied to the KBR's authorities asking to solve their land problems. According to their version, large agro-industrial companies prevent the operation of small farmers.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.