Today, July 9, the first meeting of the Committee on Information Policy and Transparency in Government Bodies of the Senate of Oliy Majlis was held. It was attended by members of the Senate, heads of relevant ministries and departments, as well as representatives of the mass media.
At the meeting, the Ecology Committee was sharply criticized. Issues such as the revocation of the second permit due to public outcry following the Tianshan brown bear hunting, the fact that the environmental inspector and media representatives were not allowed to enter the “Gafur Gulom” recreational park, and the felling of large trees in the Ishtikhon district of Samarkand region were discussed.
Speaking at the event, Sevara Davlatova, a representative of the Ecology Committee, answered the questions.
“The second permit to hunt the Tianshan brown bear has not been revoked yet. It was suspended only because of strong public outcry. As for the felling of trees, the conclusions of the environmental departments in this regard are just a link in the overall process. The decision on whether or not to cut down trees, when and in what order, will be made by local authorities, even if the Department of Ecology allows it. We propose that the authorities should post information in the area where the trees will be cut down, indicating their plans, that is, in what order and for what purpose the trees will be cut down,” Kun.uz correspondent quoted Sevara Davlatova as saying.
It should be recalled that in May, a brown bear included in the Red Book was shot dead by a Russian hunter in the Tashkent region with the permission of the Ecological Committee’s chairman, which caused public outcry. Some had demanded the chairman’s resignation.
According to Akmal Burkhanov, director of the Anti-Corruption Agency, the incident with the chairman of the Environmental Committee and the public reaction to it prompted the new decree to include a requirement to issue permits, to constantly disclose all information about its payments.
“Initially, the draft did not have a clause on hunting. It has caused a great resonance among the population after the recent incident involving the killing of a brown bear. Accordingly, we have also included hunting-related licenses in the list in which information on license holders, permitting party and recipients of socially important licenses is published.
There are many cases related to licensing. It is necessary to get a permit for the use of subsoil, and when we checked, we also learnt that it was working on the basis of an oral “permission” from the head of some government agency. The decree obliges to disclose information on similar licenses. It should be made public starting from July 1,” he said in an interview with Kun.uz.
