DUSHANBE, November 17, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- Inspections carried out by specialists from the Kulob land tenure agency in all the ten districts of the Kulob region in Khatlon province over the first ten months of this year have recorded some 600 instances of violation of the country’s land code and the offenders have been fined a total of 163,215 somoni, the head of the Kulob land tenure agency, Tohir Saidov, sad in an interview with Asia-Plus.

According to him, they have been fined mostly for irrational use of land, non paying land tax and lack of land ownership certificates.

“The most serious situation was reported in Hamadoni, Kulob and Danghara districts, where 94, 93 and 77 instances of violation of the land code have been recorded respectively,” Saidov noted.

He said the agency was currently seeking solution to the problem regarding some 1,500 hectares of unused lands in the region.  “The issue of allotting these lands to foreign farmers, for example to Chinese farmers, is being discussed now,” the land tenure agency director said.

Chinese farmers have reportedly already come to the cotton and rice fields in the southern Khatlon province sowing.