Budva: And Svetozar Marović in line for grandfather

DPS vice-president Svetozar Marović and his own brother Dragan Marović are among 139 Grbljan residents who submitted a request to the Real Estate Administration of Budva to register land in Mrčevo polje, in the hinterland of Jaz beach, on their ancestral land that was taken from them almost half a century ago.

As stated on the website of the NGO "Jaz-Mrčevo polje", which represents more than 600 families from Grblje in the process of returning the land, the Marovićs, as well as numerous families from the old towns there, submitted a request back in March, and as things stand now, they could soon to become the owners of the land again, which, due to a strange set of circumstances, has been changing hands for the past five decades.

After Mirjana Marović, the head of the Budva cadastre, was replaced by Marko Bulatović, according to the NGO, the process of registering the owners began at an accelerated pace. "Excellent cooperation was established with the Real Estate Administration both in Budva and with the central one in Podgorica, and smooth registration began."

A few months ago, Marović was relieved of her duties as head of the Real Estate Administration in Budva and transferred to the central office in Podgorica, to the position of advisor to the director. In her place, Bulatović was appointed, who in just the past three months, since taking office, registered 50 land owners in Mrčevo polje.

The fight for the return of around 2,2 million square meters of land in Mrčevo polje has been going on for two decades, and it intensified three and a half years ago, when the locals, land owners and numerous heirs formed the NGO "Jaz-Mrčevo polje", which started the legal battle for the rights of 600 Grbljana.

"So far, 96 owners have been registered", the president of the NGO "Jaz-Mrčevo polje" Ivo Ilić told "Vijesti".

He said that they expect that in the second wave another 140 of them will exercise their right.

"We have a significantly better cooperation with the Real Estate Administration in Budva since the change of the chief. The cadastre shows good will in solving our requests, and we have excellent cooperation with the head of the Real Estate Administration in Budva and the director in Podgorica," Ilić said.

Speaking about the efficiency of the current Budva cadastre, Ilić said that the former mayor registered only 50 owners in three years, and that the new mayor registered so many people in less than three months.

"That is the best indicator of the attitude that institution has towards us now. "All land owners who have settlements from the XNUMXs will be registered, while those who do not have their rights will exercise their rights in other procedures," Ilić pointed out.

Taken half a century ago

At the beginning of the sixties of the last century, the largest agricultural land in this part of the Adriatic was taken from its owners, and the agricultural estate "Boka" was formed.

This status was maintained until 1992, after which the land was returned in accordance with the current law. The ownership of the land, however, was not registered in the cadastre in real terms, so that in 1998, under strange circumstances, the companies "Monte pranco Boka produkt" and "Boka komerc" were registered. A fierce legal battle led by the NGO followed and they soon succeeded in winning the cases.

However, their troubles did not end there, because there were "technical problems" in the Budva cadastre, which was supposed to implement the solutions. Dissatisfied that their demands were not being resolved, the owners organized a protest rally in Lastva Grbaljska on October 10 last year, and at the beginning of November, the NGO "Jaz-Mrčevo polje" addressed

The Administration for Real Estate of Montenegro with a request for the implementation of legally binding decisions on the return of agricultural land from social property to former owners. At the end of November last year, the director of the Real Estate Administration, Dragan Kovačević, informed them that all the problems that existed in the Budva regional unit had been overcome and that the process of implementing changes in the real estate cadastre database had begun.