Gracanica Municipal Assembly made decision few weeks ago on regulating cadastral zones between Gracanica and Kosovo Polje municipalities, Voice of America reported today. The decision proposes to merge a part of Serb-majority Gracanica municipality to the Albanian-majority Kosovo Polje.

The Voice of America noted it is not fully understandable based on what and why precisely the Municipal Assembly of Gracanica made such decision.

The Municipal Assembly of Gracanica at extraordinary session on 12 September, as per proposal of a Mayor Srdjan Popovic, adopted a decision to initiate legal procedure to regulate cadastral lines between Kosovo Polje and Gracanica, affecting the cadastral zones of Preoce and Ugljare. According to Voice of America, the affected zone includes 108 hectares of Gracanica municipality territory, where there are several hundred mainly residential buildings.

Three Gracanica municipal assembly councilors voted against this decision. One of them is Milena Zdravkovic who said that the process is not transparent.

“Neither us who are the part of the municipal structure, nor the people who live in this municipality and have the full right to know much more about this issue, are not sufficiently informed. Public debates on this topic should be organized,” Zdravkovic from Independent Liberal Party (SLS) said during the session.

Mayor Srdjan Popovic. who proposed decision, said he did so as per inhabitants’ request, who addressed Gracanica municipality over the issues of administrative procedure and territorial proximity of the Kosovo Polje municipality. The Voice of America requested Gracanica municipality to see the inhabitants’ request, the municipality responded it would be made available within the legal timeframe, however the legal deadline expired on 20 September, and the Voice of America said it still did not get requested document.

The Voice of America added it asked mayor Popovic for an interview to respond to the questions, respectivel,y when and where consultations with citizens were held, what was the result of these consultations and how many hectares of land and premises would be given to Kosovo Polje municipality, however the response has not been received yet.

Mayor of Kosovo Polje Burim Berisha was also asked for an interview, a week ago, however, no response from him was either received, Voice of America said.

The Voice of America was unofficially told, that a complete documentation on this matter arrived at Kosovo Polje, and the topic would be on the Kosovo Polje Municipal Assembly session agenda this month.