OREANDA-NEWS. October 28, 2011. Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko deems it necessary to reintroduce the president’s exclusive right to distribute farmland. The president made a statement to that extent at a special conference October 18 focused allocation of land plots and distribution of farmland.

Lukashenko believes the president should be the only authority to take decisions on farmland withdrawal and allocation of agricultural lands for construction purposes.

The president had been the only authority to deal with land distribution issues in Belarus until ordinance No. 667 of 27 December 2007 was issued. The decree extended the authority onto region administrations and Minsk City Hall. Since then the amount of withdrawn farmlands has increased dozens of times. Therefore, Alexander Lukashenko believes it is time to reverse the situation.

In 2007 362.6 hectares of farmlands was withdrawn. After the authority was extended onto regional governors, the figure rose to over 1,364 hectares in 2008. In 2009 it was close to 5,500 hectares, including over 4,200 hectares of arable lands. In 2010 the figure reached 2,300 hectares. As of 14 October 2011 last year’s figure was exceeded, with 2,540 hectares of farmlands withdrawn, including 1,800 hectares of arable lands.

The President criticized governors for wasteful withdrawal of farmlands. He instructed the State Control Committee and the Belarus President Administration to analyze the situation and report the circumstances, under which thousands of hectares of farmlands have been withdrawn.

“I warned you against using farmlands for construction purposes. You should demolish old farms and build new ones or should use inarable lands,” reminded Alexander Lukashenko. He also believes that farmlands can be allocated for building homes only in exceptional cases.