Residents of the settlement of Rembaza, Makhachkala, came out on a picket

About 30 residents of the settlement of Rembaza whom the authorities of Makhachkala had been trying to evict from their houses for already over a year came out on a picket in Kaspiysk - Makhachkala highway demanding to reestablish power, gas and water supply in the settlement. The picket started at 10 in the morning. The participants of the action, mostly women with little children, did not block the highway. They are standing at the roadside with posters: "Official, have a heart!", "Give us light!", "We are going on a hunger strike!".

Earlier, the "Caucasian Knot" reported that the settlement of Rembaza was cut off power, gas and water. According to the residents, in this way the authorities are trying to make them leave their houses in order to construct "Lazurny Bereg" satellite town in this area. But the residents of the settlement refuse to resettle to an apartment house allotted for them by Mayor's office. They state that the house is unfit for habitation and has not yet been put into operation.

"Lazurny Bereg" is planned to be divided into two functional zones. The first zone will include residential settlements, schools, polyclinics, kindergartens and shopping centers. The second one will be a health resort.

According to resident of the settlement Anvar Tazhudinov, one of the participants of today's action, not a single representative of the authorities has yet arrived at the scene.

"Last Thursday a governmental committee consisting of three deputies of different ministers visited us. They were evidently tired of our appeals and statements. They listened to us and promised to help. On the same day power supply was reestablished and we were promised gas and water soon. However, the next day employees of community services came and tried to cut power again but we did not let them do that", Anvar Tazhudinov said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

He points out that the residents of Rembaza have seven official replies from Public prosecutor's office running that cutting off power is illegal. "But the community services have no documents explaining whose order it was and what the reasons were. There were only hints like this: "You know whose instructions we are carrying out". Then they tried to cut off wires near the highway without entering the settlement. We had to establish watch not to let them do it", Tazhudinov says.

According to him, yesterday, October, 9, representatives of security guard of community services came to the settlement twice, including one visit at two o'clock at night, in order to cut off the wires. "They were provoking our people on duty into a scuffle, so we had to call the police. Today we came out on a picket to announce our demands", the man says.

According to the participants of the action, if there is no reaction from the authorities tomorrow, October, 11, they will block Kaspiysk - Makhachkala highway. Some of them intend to go on a hunger strike.

It should be mentioned that representative of Mayor's office of Makhachkala Murtazali Murtazaliev told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that nobody was going to violate the residents' rights and the authorities were acting in accordance with the law: "But if an unauthorized building is liable to pulling down it will be pulled down".

According to the Department of Architecture of Makhachkala, there are 19 housing estates in the settlement. Six of them have the necessary package of documents and nobody has any claims to them yet. As for the rest ones, the question of further provision of the necessary facilities for them is under discussion. The authorities promise to allot flats or land parcels to their owners depending on their choice, Deputy Chief Architect the town Zubairu Batyraev said, in his turn.