The dispute over the commission for the presentation of cadastral data opened a series of mutual accusations between RGZ and the municipality of Čajetina. The "war" with announcements has been going on for days. What is behind it?
Conflict between Republic Geodetic Institute (RGZ) and the president of the municipality of Čajetina Milan Stamatović, which in recent days has grown into an exchange of harsh statements and mutual accusations, formally began due to the composition of the Commission for the presentation of data on real estate and real rights on them.
However, behind the dispute about who can be the citizen's representative in that commission is a broader question - who bears the responsibility for urban chaos and illegal construction on Zlatibor.
Lawyer and councilor from Užice Radovan Novaković tells "Vreme" that behind the mutual accusations of the Institute and Stamatović is a much more serious issue of responsibility for the development of Zlatibor.
"The question arises of the responsibility of the one who made it possible to build in such a way on the territory of the Municipality of Čajetina. There are construction inspections. Illegal construction is a criminal offense. No one can build illegally without it being recorded by those whose job it is," Novaković believes.
The conflict began on July 1, when the Republic Geodetic Institute temporarily postponed the start of the procedure for presenting data on immovable properties and real rights to them for the area of the municipality of Čajetina, stating that the reason was "an impermissible attempt at political pressure and abuse of the procedure prescribed by law."
RGZ announced that it is unacceptable for the Exhibition Commission to include a person who holds the highest local political office and at the same time publicly appears as a political actor in matters that may be the subject of its work.
The Institute asked the Municipality of Čajetina to propose another person instead of Milan Stamatović who, as they stated, "will not call into question the independence, impartiality and credibility of the work of the Commission". The Municipality refused that request.
The statement also states that the procedure will continue when the conditions for the Commission to work "independently, impartially and without pressure, with an actual representative of the citizens, and not a political official who uses the procedure prescribed by law to deal with the institutions" are ensured.
Two days later, on July 3, the Municipality of Čajetina responded that the position of the Republic Geodetic Institute is unfounded, because the Law on State Survey and Cadastre nowhere prescribes that the mayor of the municipality, councilor or other holder of public office cannot be a representative of citizens in the Commission.
"The position of the Republic Geodetic Institute that Milan Stamatović cannot be a representative of the citizens just because he is the president of the Municipality of Čajetina is completely unfounded," the announcement states.
The Municipality of Čajetina believes that this issue cannot be viewed separately from what has been happening in Zlatibor for years. They claim that Milan Stamatović repeatedly pointed out that significant areas of land representing state property are being registered in favor of PK "Zlatibor", which is why the Municipality has repeatedly requested that such registrations be reviewed. That is why they believe that it is "natural and justified" that Stamatović should be the representative of the citizens in the Commission.
On the same day, a new response from the Republic Geodetic Institute followed. RGZ announced that it welcomes Milan Stamatović's initiative because, as he states, it is an opportunity to "explain to citizens, based on documents, laws and facts, how during the 25 years of the local government led by Milan Stamatović, one of the biggest problems of illegal construction and urban chaos in Serbia arose."
According to the data presented by the Institute, more than 20.000 unregistered buildings were registered on the territory of the municipality of Čajetina, which has about 14.000 inhabitants, while more than 5.000 unregistered buildings were registered only in the settlement of Čajetina with about 3.700 inhabitants.
Milan Stamatović's long-term political role is also pointed out by Petar Vasiljević from Čajetini, member of the citizens' group "Our people for our place", who believes that the current conflict is politically motivated.
"We see this as classic deception of the people and diverting the focus from some important political issues. Whenever Stamatović is in a political crisis, he brings up the topic of Zlatibor hectares. We see it as classic political marketing," Vasiljević told Vreme.
He adds that during his political career, Stamatović cooperated with various authorities.
"It's a classic political spin of a political magician who changed six ideologies and maybe four or five political parties in 25 years. He can't say he's waging war against the government, and at the same time he's sitting in the parliamentary benches with the same government and holding the majority for it," says Vasiljević.
The municipality of Čajetina then replied that the topic was not Milan Stamatović, but the question of who registered the state land to private individuals. The Municipality states that, if we are talking about illegal construction, it should be taken into account that according to the latest estimates, there are around 4,8 million illegal or unregistered buildings in Serbia.
They also add that the Republic Geodetic Institute is not a political party nor should it be a participant in political campaigns, and that the problem of illegal construction did not arise in Čajetina nor can it be reduced exclusively to Zlatibor.
Vasiljević believes that the issue of whether the president of the municipality can be a member of the Commission is not the essence of the dispute.
"It doesn't matter to us whether any of the citizens or the president of the Čajetina municipality would be in that Commission. We have nothing against that. It's just a mantra with which, I say again, they are crushing the people. We only care that the land is saved from further devastation," he says.
The Republic Geodetic Institute responded this Monday (July 6) to the last announcement of the Municipality of Cajetina by accepting Milan Stamatović's proposal for a public debate regarding real estate issues in the territory of the Municipality of Cajetina.
They also stated that the cadastre is not a political scene and that they accept the discussion of every document and jurisdiction, but that they are not in favor of politicizing the presentation procedure.
Petar Vasiljević believes that Stamatović is trying to join the opposition ranks in order to, as he says, "manage to deceive the voters again" in some future elections. He concludes that he does so because he saw how the regime fared in the local elections in Bajana Bašta and Sevojno.
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