“A lady from Lipnicki sor near Loznica addressed us and claims that arrogant gravel miners are exploiting gravel in Batra, that they have usurped land in Bijeljina area in her possession and that they are exploiting gravel from it…”, states the informal group of citizens “Stop illegal gravel mining” and the devastation of the Drina River in Bijeljina area”.
Activists for the protection of the Drina riverbed and land along the coast, from devastation due to illegal gravel work, are increasingly being approached by owners of plots belonging to the Republic of Serbia, located on the left bank of the river, with complaints that illegal gravel trucks enter on their land and exploit minerals without permission.
In previous cases, the complaints were related to the area of Zvornik, and recently there have been complaints for Bijeljina and the settlement of Batar, one part of which is owned by Serbian citizens.
“A lady from Lipnički sor near Loznica addressed us and claims that arrogant gravel workers are exploiting gravel in Batra, that they have usurped land in the area of the city of Bijeljina in her possession and that they are exploiting gravel from it. She said there are more examples and cases of land usurpation and devastation by Serbian landowners in Batar, but these owners rarely visit their properties. Additionally, she says that gravel criminals also use the fact that there are no serious controls from the inspection bodies of Serbia, as well as from the police and inspections of Republika Srpska,” states the informal group of citizens “Stop illegal gravel exploitation and devastation of the Drina River in Bijeljina”.
In order to verify these allegations, Bijeljina activists prepared documentation and sent a request today (May 5) to the Bijeljina Police Administration to provide information on complaints about the Batar case.
“Besides that, based on the obtained information, we will take other measures, from submitting reports to the inspections of Republika Srpska and Serbia and the competent District Public Prosecutor’s Office in Bijeljina. Our motives for the reaction are concrete measures taken by the authorities to prevent illegal actions of gravel pits, which change the course of the river, destroy flora and fauna, and deny revenues to the entity and local community budget,” the Group stated.
In previous cases, concrete measures of the Republika Srpska authorities were missing for reports in the Zvornik area, while the inspection from the neighboring state of Serbia reacted more effectively, whose inspectors went to the field and punished Zvornik gravel workers who illegally extract gravel.
Also, at the request of Serbian citizens who have plots on the other bank of the Drina River, Zvornik activists directly addressed the inspection bodies of the neighboring country in April, which ex officio initiated an inspection procedure regarding the extraction of river sediment from the Drina riverbed and bank. KO Brasina, a location that leans on Bosanski Trsic in Republika Srpska. Water inspectors for the Macva and Kolubara districts carried out a joint control in a short period of time, in which they did not find any people extracting river sediment at that location. But …
“Parked construction machines and a vehicle were found without the presence of other persons,” reads the response from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Water Inspection Department in Loznica. They also stated that in the previous controls they found gravel pits from Zvornik in extracting river sediments without obtained water acts, water conditions and water consent, from the competent water management body of JVP “Srbijavode” VPC “Sava-Dunac”, Belgrade-New Belgrade. Specifically, they mentioned the reaction and punishment in the case of the two BiH gravel miners against which six requests for initiating misdemeanor proceedings were submitted before the competent court in Loznica – Court Department in Mali Zvornik.
Source: facebook.com
