The specialised environmental prosecutor's office of the North Kazakhstan region identified a violation in the allocation of a land plot on which Lake Yurtovoye is located.
According to the agency's press service, in 2023 a plot of 55 hectares was transferred for use with the designated purpose of afforestation.
However, the territory was classified as pastureland for grazing livestock. Additionally, 40 hectares of the plot is occupied by a body of water, making it part of the water fund.
"According to the requirements of Article 135 of the Land Code and Article 119 of the Water Code, the allocation of such land for afforestation is only possible with a positive conclusion from the authorised body in the field of water resource protection, which was not obtained in this case," the statement said.
Despite the clear violations, the land commission issued a positive conclusion to lease the plot.
After the prosecutor's office intervened, the court ruled the land transfer illegal and ordered the return of the plot, with a cadastral value of over 117 million tenge, to state ownership.
Members of the land commission, as well as heads of the land relations department and the state legal department of the Mamlyut district akimat, were subjected to disciplinary action in the form of incomplete service compliance.
Recall that earlier on the website OLX.kz, an advertisement appeared for the sale of Lake Krivoye for 5.5 million tenge, also located in the North Kazakhstan region. Upon detailed analysis of this offer, the FBRK editorial team managed to determine that what was actually being sold was not the lake itself, but a company which, under a long-term lease, owns part of the shoreline, and the phone number in the advertisement belongs to Kazakh statesman Aman Turegeldin.