State to Blame for Misfortune of Bayil Slope Inhabitants

Baku / 12.02.18 / Turan: On Sunday, residents of some of the approximately 40 private houses located on the Bayil hillside loaded their household goods into trucks.

The territory of the landslide is fenced with a white ribbon, the road to the zone is guarded by patrols of the traffic police and the post-patrol service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and nobody is allowed to come up to the houses other than their residents. Four buildings damaged by a landslide, which began to move under the weight of rainfall on February 10, are clearly visible from a distance.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there are no casualties, as residents of the zone were evicted from their homes 15 days earlier and live in other places, including the building of a neighboring school.

On the day of the disaster, the head of the executive power of the Sabayil district Eldar Azizov, who visited the collapsed houses nearby, informed the residents that the state will pay them a one-year housing rent. Perhaps, if such a decision is made, the residents will receive compensation and will be finally resettled.

The territory of the Alley of Martyrs and the entire Mountainous Park is not dangerous, as can be seen from the safe gypsum beacons reinforced on the walls by specialists in late January.

The affected citizens demand from the state to pay them full compensation for the lost property - the houses and the contents. Is it obligatory for the state to pay money to the victims by withdrawing funds from the state budget drawn up by the taxes of citizens of the country? Building houses on the landslide territory, these people could wonder and find out that a landslide in Bayil last occurred in August 2011, and for the first time on this site, it happened in 1870. Until 2017 in the Bayil territory, landslides occurred 10 times.

But citizens are not interested in the level of security of the area chosen for housing construction, and the state"s punitive methods against violators of laws are not applied, as they are neutralized by corruption morals of police and officials.

Former villagers built these houses at the sight of the local police and executive officials of the Sabayil district. There is no doubt that the police and officials came to the owners and received a bribe for silence at the sight of the illegal construction. And having a briber put in their pockets, they even wished "prosperity" to the "new Baku residents". This procedure is well known in Azerbaijan, as it is used throughout the country and especially in Baku and on the Absheron peninsula, where even when building a fence to the construction site, a "delegation" arrives from the local authorities and police with a proposal to retire silently for a bribe from the builder.

Since April 2015, a citizen who wants to build a house, notifies the district executive authority of the intention and presents the draft of the house together with the application. Not later than in 15 days the authorities must give written approval or report on the impossibility of the construction, explaining the reason. In this case, the citizen has to abandon the intention or file a complaint to higher authorities, or to the court. This rule applies to private houses not higher than 3 floors (12 meters), as is recorded in the Town Planning and Building Code.

Thus, if the authorities allowed the construction of private houses in the landslide zone, then the fault of the state is undeniable. If the government banned it, but the citizens violated the ban, agreeing on a bribe with government officials, then the state is also to blame as well as the citizens acting as developers.

The state is also to blame because the Compulsory Insurance Law adopted in 2011 with its Special Section (II) and the second chapter (Compulsory Real Estate Insurance) is not being implemented. If residents had bought insurance policies for their property, the entire financial burden of helping the landslide victims would have lain on the shoulders of insurance companies. But the state does not require compliance with the Law on Compulsory Insurance, as well as it does not comply with the provisions of the Town Planning and Building Code. These two laws remain stillborn, creating problems for citizens, rather than protecting their rights.

Thus, by issuing inactive laws and not seeking their enforcement, while at the same time indulging the corrupt transactions of citizens with civil servants to circumvent these laws, the state created a problem of the security of the citizens and their homes and other property. Consequently, the requirements of the citizens evicted from the dangerous territory for full state compensation for their lost property are justified.--0--