Dispute between the Kareli municipality city hall and Ruisi village residents continue

Lado Bitchashvili, Shida Kartli

Regardless the court judgment, Kareli municipality city hall is selling one part of the sport ground in Ruisi village. The Khashuri district court prohibited the city hall to sell the part of the sport ground with its judgment several months ago. As a result of the court ruling, the city hall was compelled to cancel the auction. The city hall had already found the investor – Russian company Ltd Big Service, which wanted to arrange the station for the electro-mobiles in the territory. The company had already paid part of the money but because of the protest of the population and the court judgment, the city hall returned the money to the company.

Ruisi population believed that they had finished their fight against the Kareli municipality city hall over the sport ground but the issue of selling the sport ground was re-submitted to the municipal assembly. On May 20, the members of the assembly were notified that the local self-government had started procedures to assign the territory to the Ministry of Economics. The issue was voted through in the bureau and commission and finally, the decision will be made on May 29 at the session of the assembly. 

Lado Buziashvili, resident of Ruisi, who is against selling the territory, said that the local government continues activities against the interests of the local population and the court judgment. 

“The court prohibited the city hall to sell the territory and now they found a solution by assigning it to the Ministry of Economics; afterwards, the Ministry will sell the territory. We continue our fight and will appeal their decision; they will not succeed though the municipality mayor is personally interested in selling the territory,” Lado Buziashvili said. 

HRC lawyer Aleksi Merebashvili said the Kareli municipality city hall and the municipal assembly do not have right to assign the part of the sport ground to the Ministry of Economics. According to Merebashvili, there might be corruptive deal between the Russian company and senior officials of the local government. 

“Although the court prohibited them to sell the sport ground in Ruisi, they decided to sell it to the investor via the Ministry of Economics. It creates doubts that they have made corruptive deals and officials have accepted money in exchange of the property; now they try to fulfill their obligations in front of the Russian company. The state security service must study the case and investigate what is happening in the Kareli municipality city hall. It is also noteworthy that less than one year ago, several public servants of the Kareli local self-government were convicted for bribery,” Aleksi Merebashvili said.

Representatives of the Kareli municipal assembly state that the territory has different cadaster code and it is located nearby the sport ground. 

“The city hall was prohibited to sell the property via auction and they will not sell the property. Therefore, under the law, there is no problem as this land has no connection with the development of sport infrastructure because it is only located close the sport ground with the different cadaster code,” head of the legal service of the Kareli municipal assembly Inga Ekaladze clarified.

The Kareli municipal assembly will discuss the issue of assigning the part of the sport ground in Ruisi village to the Ministry of Economics on May 29. The Georgian Dream has the majority members in the assembly; so Ruisi residents and their defender, HRC lawyer do not expect that the assembly will down-vote the issue. However, they will continue legal fight to maintain the territory.