Residents of Dagestani village complain about extortion voiced by officials

In Dagestan, residents of the Khazar village in the Derbent District held a meeting of owners of land plots allocated for personal households. According to the participants of the meeting, they have paid money to registration of their land plots, but now officials state that the villagers got the documents illegally and demand from the villagers to re-legalize their land plots.

The meeting held on October 14 was attended by about 30 people, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports. According to the participants of the meeting, the land plots were purchased by them in the period from 2010 to 2012.

"Every [owner of a land plot] unofficially gave money for the land ... In the administration we were told that we could build houses without troubles. And now we are told that we illegally got those land plots," said Yusuf, a participant of the meeting.

According to the participants of the meeting, in September, officials from the administration began to visit them and accuse them of misuse of land.

The villages have also noted that some land owners were forced to give bribes twice to obtain the documents of entitlement for the land plots.

Many residents of the houses in dispute have said they have no other housing and almost all of them take care of minor children.

The situation in the Khazar village with disputed lands is typical for Dagestan, noted advocate Albina Abdulkerimova.

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