Dwellers of village near Mahilou threaten Lukashenka to organise Maidan

Villagers can lose land plots due to the harvest festival.

People living in the village of Ausianka (Horki district, Mahilou region) can be deprived of land plots. Local officials think vegetable gardens spoil the look of the village, which will host this year's harvest festival, Radio Svaboda reports.

Vegetable gardens will be turned into a lawn. People are offered land plots in another place. They say that the authorities don't take their interests into account and plan to defend the fruits of their labour.

Ausianka dwellers say the land plots near the Mahilou-Horki road were allocated among people living in nearby three-storey blocks of flats. People were keeping the plots in order and growing potatoes, beetroot and berries. Some people planted trees.

People got angry at the news that they must leave the land. They say they won't give their gardens, but they don't know what they should do under law.

“There are fifteen plots of land opposite our houses. It's time to sow something, and the news came as a surprise. Villagers used to have about 60 cows in the village, but now we don't have any. The authorities later invented that swine fever to protect big pig farms. People don't raise pigs in yards any more. This time they want our gardens. But we live in the village, not in the town,” a woman from Ausianka says angrily.

She says the local authorities explain the move with the harvest festival that will be held in Ausianka this year. The woman says officials don't like how the gardens look from the road:

“They say guests won't like the view. They are going to cut down apple and cherry trees and grow lawns. As far as I understand, they need a reasonable excuse to take the land plots, for example if they want to construct something. The harvest festival is not a reasonable excuse. Our gardens look good.”

The local authorities already warned people that they must leave the land plots. People are angry, but local officials don't listen to them and promise to give them plots in another place. People say the soil there is unsuitable for growing vegetables and this year's growing season will be missed.

“This system doesn't want to listen to people. They don't respect us. We have been having these gardens for twenty years. Only weeds had grown there before. They asked us to take plots of land and take care of them,” another woman says.

“We were working for five years to get a harvest. We planted many flowers, because the plots are along the road,” the woman says. “They are going to make a lawn due to the harvest festival. But guests will come only for one day. They also say they will construct a block of flats here. But they didn't mention it before. People don't have work and salaries, but they want to build a block of flats. Do they need angry people?”

Dzmitry Yanchanka, the chairman of the rural council of Ausianka, claims people were offered land plots in another place. The decision is explained with landscape improvement in the village.

“The harvest festival is not the only reason. It is also landscape improvement. People have small plots of lands along the road. They grow different plants. The chairman of the district council carried out an inspection and said it must be order. We'll want a lawn here. It's the 21st century, but people have vegetable gardens and greenhouses in front of apartment blocks,” Dzmitry Yanchanka explains the position of the authorities.

He says officials explained the situation to people and some understood it. They went to see the new plots of land and asked help to prepare the soil for vegetable growing. The local authorities are ready to help.

According to the rural council chairman, the land plots are situated on the site of a former garden.

“It was hard to maintain the garden. It required grass cutting. Now it's time to put the land in order,” he says.

“I can understand people. They live in blocks of flats and want to have land plots nearby. We offer them the plots where 90% of other dwellers have them. There are the land plots that people abandoned after the ban to raise pigs. We offer these plots to those having gardens near their homes,” the official says.

Dwellers of Ausianka say they didn't know about the inspection. No one met with them. People learnt about its decision in the rural council.

“It's not honest,” another villager says. He thinks the village has enough places that need order.

“Ausianka already hosted the local harvest festival and nobody said our gardens were a problem,” he says. “They apparently have much money to grow lawn grass and mow it. It's a huge space. It's additional expenses. People have gardens near roads in other villages and no one says it's a problem. Why do they do so?” he wonders.

The man says such a disrespect for people can have consequences for the authorities:

“They think it's not serious. They don't understand that Maidan in Ukraine was a gradual process that started with a disrespect for people. They think they can do whatever they want at their posts, because we have no public control. But it will have a sad end.”

Photo: svaboda.org