Dagestani rights defender complains of administrative pressure

Murtazali Tagirov, head of the public organization named "Fighter for Justice" said that officials from the local "Rospotrebnadzor" (Russian Federal Agency for Consumer Supervision) keep him under administrative pressure for his human rights activities.

According to his story, the store that belongs to him is under an off-schedule revision with the aim to press on him after he actively protested against exploitation of the quarries located in the suburb of Kizilyurt, and construction of objects within the sanitary zone in the vicinity of the October Revolution Canal. According to his story, by means of this canal the drinking water from the Sulak River is delivered to Makhachkala, Kaspiisk, Izberbash and dwelling settlements of the Karabudakhkent District.

Let us remind you that residents of the dwelling settlements of Komsomolskoe and Sultanyangiyurt of the Kizilyurt District of Dagestan, unhappy because of the quarries, have repeatedly appealed to various authorities, up to the presidential administration, held protest actions and blocked roads. They wrote to the "Rospotrebnadzor", Ministry of Environment, local district committee for ecology, but the situation has not changed for the better.

Any construction near the canal is prohibited by law; however its banks, according to Murtazali Tagirov, are built-up with houses and shops, while domestic and industrial wastewaters are drained into the canal.

The human rights activist has recently addressed on the issue of illegal construction to Nizami Adigyuzelov, deputy chief physician of the inter-district department of "Rospotrebnadzor" for the Republic of Dagestan. This occurred in the presence of the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. After a month, he received a notification from the agency about the upcoming revision of his small shop.

"On April 27 three auditors came to my place," said Murtazali Tagirov and added they took foodstuffs for laboratory analysis. He has reminded that less than three years, as required by law, has elapsed after the previous revision.

Layuza Magomedova, chief specialist of the inter-district division of the Dagestani "Rospotrebnadzor", told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that it was a scheduled audit, coordinated with the prosecutor's office, and that Murtazali Tagirov's shop had to be checked exactly this April. In April 2009 the shop was examined not by her agency but by the militia, thus, there is no violation of the law. She explained that foodstuffs were taken from the Tagirov's shop under the law for chemical and bacteriological examination.

As earlier reported by the "Caucasian Knot", the concentration of industrial aerosols (dust of inorganic origin) in the air of the Kizilyurt District exceed the maximum allowable concentrations by dozens of times - from 53.72 to 157.45.