A legal dispute is brewing in Almaty over the return of illegally privatised land, the acquisition of which was approved by the district akimat 20 years ago.
According to the Almaty city prosecutor's office, in 2004, the 'International Association of Clubs' LLP purchased an agricultural plot through which the Kerenkula River and the Berkara Stream flow.
This fact is confirmed by a resolution of the akimat of the Karasai district of the Almaty region regarding the transfer of the plot into private ownership.
In October of this year, the Almaty prosecutor's office filed a lawsuit with the Interdistrict Economic Court to have the transfer of the plot declared invalid.
The crux of the matter is that the disputed plot belongs to the water fund lands, which can only be owned by the state, and can only be leased to private individuals.
Incidentally, the famous Almaty aport apples are grown on the disputed plot, and responsibility for them in this area may now pass to the state.
The court has not yet made a decision on this matter.
Recall that in October of this year, it was reported that, as part of the work to return assets, the special state fund has already been replenished by more than 177 billion tenge.
Furthermore, an additional replenishment of the fund by more than 150 billion tenge is expected shortly. All returned funds are to be used for the implementation of the country's social and economic projects.
In early September, during a government meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Serik Zhumangarin stated that this year, of the planned 2 million hectares, 1.3 million hectares of unused or illegally issued agricultural land had been returned to the state.
Later, in the Kostanay region, a land plot of 15 hectares, with an estimated value of more than 254 million tenge, was returned to the state.
In August, it was reported that in the Aktobe region, agricultural land plots totalling 30,000 hectares were returned to state ownership.
In June, it was revealed that prosecutors in the Almaty region had returned to state ownership 155 plots of unused land covering 12,500 hectares and valued at 2.5 billion tenge.