Minister of Capital Investments Evrin Ibrahimović said that the process of awarding the concession for the quarry in Bijedići was transparent, public and non-discriminatory, in accordance with the law.
The locals announced a new blockade of the main road on Sunday, May 28, demanding the termination of the contract with the company "Elas".
On Sunday, May 28 at 12:XNUMX p.m., the residents of Bijedić will block the highway Bijelo Polje - Prijepolje for an hour, due to the construction of a quarry in that place, a widely known archaeological site from the Neolithic.
Locals are outraged that the construction of a quarry was started on that site, which is up to 6,5 thousand years old, for which the owner of the company "Elas" Šućro Omerović, as he claims, received all the necessary permits.
The locals are asking for the termination of the contract, to protect the locality and to review all approvals, especially before the quarry works near houses, the main water supply for MZ Gubavac, properties, meadows... .
Omerović and the Minister of Capital Investments, Ervin Ibrahimović, signed a concession agreement for detailed geological research and exploitation of non-metallic mineral raw materials - technical construction stone from the "Ober" location in the town of Bijedići near Bijelo Polje.
In the meantime, the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Property passed a decision on the "preliminary protection" of the already damaged site, for the construction of which it had previously given a positive opinion.
The administration passed a decision on the protection of the site in Bijedići, which followed after it turned out that the concessionaire, the company "Elas" from Bijelo Polje, had cut through a 6-year-old Neolithic site with excavators.
From the Ministry of Capital Investments, addressed to the representative of the civic initiative "Protect BIjedić", Krsto Tvrdišić, delivered yesterday, they recounted the process of obtaining the concession, starting with the Government session the year before last, when it adopted the Plan for granting concessions for detailed geological research, and that before that plan The government's consideration and adoption was preceded by a public debate, which was conducted by MKP - Directorate for Geology and Mining, after which the "Ober" site was included in the plan.
"The procedure for awarding the concession was transparent, public and non-discriminatory. The procedure for awarding the concession took place in a transparent procedure in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Concessions. After the procedure for drafting the concession act, in accordance with the law, the competent authority turns to the institutions and organizations responsible for certain characteristics of the locality. In the case of the "Ober" locality, the Institute for Geological Research of the Judiciary applied to the Directorate for the Protection of Cultural Property with a request dated November 4, 2020," reads the reply, which the Ministry of Capital Investments submitted to the representative of the civil initiative "Protect Bijedić". .
In the answer, they add that in the Management Opinion of November 30, 2020, it is stated that it is possible to start the exploration and exploitation of the mineral raw material technical stone at the location "Ober" with the obligation to respect the legal provisions stated in this opinion, and that the document in question was approved by the then Director of Management Božidar Božović.
They remind that the grantor has the right to terminate the contract by delivering the contract of termination, without giving a deadline for remedying the injuries, if "the performance of the concession activity endangers the environment and the health of people or areas and objects protected by law, which could not be foreseen at the time the concession was granted, and the measures provided for in special regulations are not sufficient to prevent this".
The Ministry of Capital Investments states that on May 16, they received a decision from the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Property, which, among other things, establishes the preliminary protection of the "archaeological site "Trnje in Bijedići"; until the end of archaeological research and excavation, with which the concessionaire is also familiar.
"As this body fully complied with the legal procedure for awarding the contract in question, it will monitor the observance of the rights and obligations arising from the contract in the course of further proceedings," stated Minister Ibrahimović in his reply.
Archaeologist and adviser to the Polim Museum Predrag Lutovac told "Vijesti" that, besides Beransel in Berane, it is the only site of the Neolithic Vinča cultural group that has only been partially explored. He called the previous positive opinion of the Quarry Construction Authority as hasty.
"The Polim museum has opened several probes, and considering the area on which the Neolithic settlement is spread, so far the Polim museum has investigated only five percent. To be more precise, 30 square meters have been investigated on the site, which extends over a length of about 200 meters. about 200 items were found in the investigated part. The contractor cannot approach the sipar without destroying the archaeological site itself," said Lutovac.
Environmental activist Milorad Miki Mitrović said that the top of the Democratic Party of Socialists at the state level was responsible for approving the construction of the quarry in Bijedići, that this thread was continued at the municipal level, after the elections on August 30, 2020, but also the new government at the state level, which silently watches the destruction of a well-known archaeological site.
"The company "Elas" received an incredible 1.743.416 square meters of concession space on which it should operate a quarry, which is incredible," Mitrović said.
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