Kochanova: Belarus has always respected Cuba’s independence

Opening the meeting, the Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Committee of State Control, Vladimir Godyatsky, stated that the problem is extensive and includes up to a dozen blocks of various issues. All of them were thoroughly reviewed with the participation of the collegium members and invited guests, including the Assistant to the President of the Republic of Belarus – Inspector for Vitebsk Region Sergey Levkovich, the First Deputy Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee Anatoly Linevich, and in the regional executive committee hall and studios in the regions – heads of district executive committees, and other individuals involved in the issues under consideration.

It was noted that the committee continues to identify systemic violations of land and environmental legislation, overgrowth of agricultural land with weeds and woody vegetation, and a lack of basic order on the territories of agricultural facilities, residential buildings, and land adjacent to roads.

District executive committees are practically not exercising control over the use and protection of land. In some districts, land suitable for agriculture continues to overgrow. However, objects and buildings unsuitable for agricultural activities and rural living are not demolished for years, they decay and sometimes become irreparable. State money is, so to speak, being buried in the ground.

And this already entails fines and other, more stringent, punitive measures.

– And in some districts, for example, in Braslav and Vitebsk, not a single administrative offense report has been drawn up at all, which indicates that such facts are either not detected or are not given proper assessment, – commented Vadim Volovich, First Deputy Chairman of the State Control Committee.

A separate issue is the need to review and implement action plans for bringing agricultural land occupied by woody and shrub vegetation into circulation. This does not require significant costs, and such work needs to be carried out in Polotsk, Postavy, Chashnik, Ushach districts, and a number of others. A review of plans for the demolition of unused facilities in agricultural organizations is also required. This is a separate instruction from the Head of State, and, importantly, in some districts of the region, such facilities have either not been included in the plans at all, or there are few of them, but managers, as they say, do not get around to them. And there are also facts when significant areas of agricultural land are not brought into circulation for a long time. This, as emphasized, is particularly characteristic of most districts. For example, in Gorodok district, this is 7 thousand hectares, in Braslav district – 2 thousand hectares.

Many plots overgrown with woody and shrub vegetation and trees have been identified, which are not economically feasible to bring into agricultural circulation – they should be transferred to forestry enterprises.

However, the degree of implementation of even such plans is extremely low in some districts. For example, the Sennensky District Executive Committee has made decisions six times since 2022 to grant land plots to the Bogushevskoye Forestry Enterprise, and all these decisions have lost their force.

A major problem is the removal of shrub vegetation from land adjacent to roads, and this work needs to be significantly intensified. For example, the following fact was mentioned at the meeting: in the Gorodok district, more than half of the land within the road right-of-way is overgrown with woody and shrub vegetation, and in some ra

in many areas, more than 70 percent of the roadsides are overgrown to the extent that it will soon be difficult for agricultural machinery to travel on such roads. In general, this picture looks unappealing across the region.

All this leads to a negative attitude of the population towards local authorities and numerous justified complaints from citizens. Following the collegium meeting, local authorities were instructed to take measures to bring to justice those responsible for failing to take measures to improve territories and maintain order on the land. It is necessary to ensure strict control over land plots provided for the extraction of common useful minerals. It is necessary to develop measures providing for specific deadlines for the completion of work on all blocks of issues considered at the collegium.

On the same day, the collegium of the Vitebsk Regional Committee of State Control considered another issue – "On the results of control over compliance by authorized bodies of the Vitebsk region with legislation regulating control (supervisory) activities".

It was noted that, in general, a system of control and supervision has been established in the region, which allows identifying entities posing the greatest risk and ensuring safety in all areas. No more than two percent of registered entities are checked annually, and 80 percent of all control and preventive measures are carried out by supervisory bodies ensuring the safety of people's lives.

Among the violations observed in this regard are procedural ones, the lack of proper control over the execution of issued orders to eliminate violations, frequent interference in the activities of an entity, and unjustified control measures.

As noted, inspections and punishments should not be the sole purpose of controllers' work. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure the proper quality of control.