Azerbaijan, Baku, 15 March / Trend corr. I.Khalilova, I.Alizadeh / Garib Mammadov, chairman of the State Land and Cartography Committee of Azerbaijan, stated that municipalities and regional Executive Power of Azerbaijan will sale land areas through auctions and contests beginning from 2008.
Under the Bill on 'Land', sale of municipal and local lands is implemented directly through auctions and contests. However, during the previous period, heads of Executive Power and self-governing departments sold lands without auctions, which caused negative consequences, Mammadov said.
"We developed proposals and submitted to the Government to cancel the item on direct sale of lands. The Parliament made necessary changes into the Bill and new amendments will come to force in the near future.
For 2007, State Committee revealed thousands of violations in the sale of lands by municipalities. Fine sanctions were used over 400 facts of violations.
Totally, there are 2,757 municipalities in Azerbaijan. Self-governing departments were established by the order of Azerbaijani President from 24 December 1999.
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