Aleksandr Lukashenko meets with State Property Committee Georgy Kuznetsov
President of the Republic of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko met with Chairman of the State Property Committee Georgy Kuznetsov on 22 January.
Top on the agenda of the meeting was the draft law on amendments and additions to the Land Code of the Republic of Belarus.
The head of state drew attention to the importance of the issue, because decisions regarding land allocation for construction and other purposes are made by the President and translate into a huge workload.
Aleksandr Lukashenko believes that the State Property Committee and the Belarus President Administration should team up to work out optimal solutions.
“It would probably make most sense if oblast executive committees assume the authority to make decisions regarding temporary land allocation, or land allocation for power grids and similar installations, i.e. minor land allocation decisions that raise no doubt. I do not mind it. We need to study the matter,” the head of state said.
“However, decisions on major land plots, like forests, meadows, pastures and so on, should be made by the President. It is for sure,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
The head of state ordered to ease land allocation regulations to the maximum, leaving only allocation of significant land plots for attention of the President.
Aleksandr Lukashenko warned government officials against abuse of power when making such decisions.
“I would like to hear comments on this bill before I sign it into law, on all changes you made to it,” said the head of state.
Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed that the regulations regarding the allocation of forests and other land plots for hunting, fishing and so on should be streamlined as well.
“No red tape is admissible. We need efficiency and yet full control in this field. I believe we have too many private hunting lands and we do not keep them under proper control. I do not want to say that every hunter misconducts. There are private hunting grounds which are efficient. Hunting grounds where the owner takes care of his land, breeds animals. But there are grounds which are nothing like this,” the head of state said. He also took interest in how these issues are addressed today.
“Control is a good thing. It will always be. But it should not harm investment projects, housing construction. I would like to hear answers to these questions as we are discussing the bill today,” the head of state added.
Aleksandr Lukashenko demanded a tougher approach to the withdrawal and allocation of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes. He also demanded restoring the equal size of land parcels to replace the land plots withdrawn. In addition, the head of state instructed to pay greater attention to the issues of allocation of hunting grounds and land for real estate development on the territory of hunting grounds.