Summerhouse' residents of the Moscow region: "Do not take away our gas pipeline for the needs of "social gasification"!

But its branches - local gas distribution organizations - understood the presidential program "Social gasification" in their own way: they simply "dispossess" the private gas pipelines of dacha associations...

Julia Suntsova

In his last address to the Federal Assembly in April 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the launch of social gasification in the country. Gas should be brought to households in settlements of the Russian Federation by 2023 without attracting citizens' funds, that is, free of charge. The order was instructed to fulfill the Government and the Ministry of Energy, they handed over the task to the mercy of Gazprom, Gazprom - their local branches, which do, as they say, as best they can.

After that, starting around the summer of 2021, lawyers and lawyers were flooded with massive complaints: instead of spending the allocated tranches on the construction of new gas pipelines, gas workers in the regions are simply forcibly withdrawing private gas pipelines for general needs.

“Social gasification” is essentially carried out at the expense of gardening partnerships, which a decade ago invested their personal funds in the construction of gas pipelines from scratch.

Referring to the presidential decree, in the Moscow region Mosoblgaz sends requests to the owners of private gas pipelines to transfer property to them free of charge.

Where owners refuse to voluntarily hand over their gas pipelines, gas companies and local administrations essentially initiate expropriations through the courts.

Right now, a process is underway in the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region - Mosoblgaz JSC and third parties - the administration of the Domodedovo urban district, the Ministry of Energy of the Moscow Region against the summer residents of the DNP Pavlovskoye. The fight is for a gas pipeline with a length of 4033 meters.

The private gas pipeline was built back in 2016 - 53 members of the Pavlovskoye Dacha non-profit partnership invested personal funds in its construction - about 17 million rubles (that is, the personal contribution of one family was about 320.8 thousand rubles).

The general meeting of the DNP Pavlovskoye decided that everyone who wants to connect to the gas pipeline after it is put into operation will have to pay 350 thousand rubles for the tie-in. The new contributions will cover the costs already incurred for the construction and maintenance of the pipeline.

According to members of the Pavlovskoye DNP, the gas pipeline was registered in the ownership of the DNP and entered into the Unified State Register of Real Estate with the same status. And everything was fine until 2021, when “social gasification” was announced in the country.

In June 2021, the management of the Pavlovskoye NPP received a demand from JSC Mosoblagaz to connect private houses to the gas pipeline free of charge, which do not belong to the lands of the NNP.

After the owners refused to share their gas pipeline with the villagers, who did not participate in its construction in any way, Mosoblgaz, with the support of the municipality, sued the summer residents.

The defendants are urged "not to interfere with social gasification" - that is, to connect everyone to their gas pipeline without any compensation.

Residents believe that the forcible connection of some fellow villagers to gas at the expense of others can hardly be called "social gasification." They do not understand why they should become sponsors of the state program.

At the same time, residents of the Pavlovskoye NPP indicate that they have nothing against connecting if the state returns to them the initial costs for the construction of the gas pipeline, and does not simply try to seize their property, since it is private property.

And the main question is, where will the billions of public funds allocated specifically for “social gasification” once again end up, if gas distribution organizations prefer not to build, but to take away already built gas pipelines from private individuals?

At the end of December 2021, members of the Pavlovskoye DNP held a meeting at which they recorded a video message to officials and asked them not to encroach on their property, hiding behind the order of Vladimir Putin. Probably, by social gasification, the president still meant something other than arrogant, undisguised and absolutely lawless seizure of property from respectable owners, they say.

- In the summer, Mosoblgaz sends a letter - we are now obliged to connect everyone to our gas pipeline. They acknowledge that the property is private, but ignore all our requests for compensation for the costs we incurred. On the basis of what law is the dispossession of dacha associations carried out? They write that we allegedly impede the execution of the presidential order, they accuse us of violating the law. In the same letter they warn: do not give it voluntarily, we will take it through the court and still pay all the costs for the time spent. We beat the thresholds of the administration and Mosoblgaz - their explanation is the same: the president said so, period. And they are already inciting the prosecutor's office against us, extremists, - says Valentina Gushchina.

The act of acceptance of the completed construction of the gas pipeline by the Dachny non-profit partnership "Pavlovskoye" is dated June 10, 2016. The decision on the need to pull the gas pipeline from the main network was made at the General Meeting of Members. Under this decision of the General Meeting, Mosolgaz itself issued all the necessary approvals: technical conditions and permits for the construction and launch of the gas pipeline were signed.

- Since 2016, we have spent 17 million rubles. Today we say, God bless them - give us at least 10 million rubles - those that you indicate in the cadastral value and take the object to your balance. But why do you want to connect everyone to our gas pipeline for free and leave the burden of its maintenance on us? Why is “social” gasification for some neighbors carried out exclusively at the expense of others ? says Yury Sigachev, a member of the HDP Pavlovskoe.

Ridiculous, of course: the Government was instructed to gasify the village. Officials have taken an inventory, found private gas pipelines and are forcing them to give them to the full disposal of the state for free. And so, apparently, they intend to solve this problem throughout Russia, as in the days of forced collectivization, as after the war. Today is yours, and tomorrow is common, says Petr Mezhuev, a member of the Pavlovskoe DNP:

- There is only one problem: why is the compensation mechanism not thought out? We asked this question to the president, the government, State Duma deputies, the governor, the Ministry of Energy of the Moscow Region. Replies have arrived. Gas workers simply bypass our consent, bypass the interests of owners, spit on legal practice. But we are exactly the same citizens as our neighbors, who are also entitled to social gasification! And here it turns out that some citizens parasitize on others, enlisting lawless coercion from the authorities. It seems to me that the president meant something completely different by “social gasification”.

- Of course, there is no legislative basis for this expropriation. A completely incomprehensible law enforcement practice is being formed. The general meeting says - please, connect, but we have set an amount justified by the costs we have already incurred - 350 thousand rubles. They don't hear them. Fellow villagers are simply pitted against each other by such methods. Moreover, the most active citizens are suffering - those who a few years ago did not expect any mercy from officials and pulled the gas pipeline at their own expense. And those tens and hundreds of fellow villagers who did not want to invest their money, but were simply waiting for something, today, with administrative help, are the first to sit on their necks - and all this happens in some villages, in some villages, where people have been living side by side for decades! - comments the press secretary of the Russian Bar Association "For Human Rights" Yulia Guseinova.

Unfortunately, the situation in Pavlovskoye DNP is not unique: complaints about the implementation of "social gasification" through the taking of property come from other regions and cities. Most of the courts take the side of the gas workers and local administrations, lawyers say.

Novye Izvestia has at its disposal a lawsuit filed by Joint Stock Company Mosoblgaz against the Dachny non-profit partnership Pavlovskoye. The arguments used by the plaintiff, explaining why the defendant should give them his gas pipeline for free, do not stand up to scrutiny.

Mosoblgaz titles its statement of claim - On non-imposing obstacles in gasification.

"The structure and density of the gas supply source (the respondent's gas pipeline) fully ensures compliance with the requirements of the Federal Law in terms of technical regulations on the safety of the operation of facilities, has sufficient capacity to provide the technical ability to connect new gas consumers while maintaining the conditions for gas supply to existing gas consumers at the Pavlovskoye DNP. Due to the fact that the throughput of the source gas pipeline and its technical characteristics are designed to supply existing and potential consumers with gas, the Respondent's rights by connecting from the gas pipeline sources will not be violated ,” writes Mosoblgaz JSC.

On July 20, 2021, gas workers turned to summer residents for approval to connect other houses as part of the social gasification program, but they refused. How could they?!

“The relevant legal regulation is based on the technological specifics of gas supply, as well as the technical and economic inexpediency of constructing independent gas pipelines for each individual directly connected to the networks of a gas supply organization. By refusing to connect to the source gas pipeline, the Respondent is hindering Mosoblgaz JSC from carrying out measures for social gasification, ”the plaintiff concludes and asks the court to remove this obstacle, namely: to force the owners of the gas pipeline to agree to connect other houses within ten days.

In general, there are a lot of words and sophistry, but meanwhile, there is no intelligible explanation why some neighbors should share their property with other neighbors for free.

The legal support of "social gasification" clearly could not find a normal legislative basis for these expropriations, and, apparently, did not try very hard - why, if everything is decided by a fair court. Everything that the commissioners of dispossession are guided by is the word of the president in his last message to the Federal Assembly.

And the courts know their stuff. On December 27, 2021, the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region, for example, fully satisfied a similar claim of Mosoblgaz JSC against a legal entity (also a garden partnership). Judge Natalya Pomortseva's decision reads:

“To oblige NP GORKI-INFRASTRUKTURE not to obstruct Mosoblgaz JSC in connecting residential buildings, in accordance with the social gasification card for the village of Gorki, Dmitrovsky urban district, Moscow region.”

At least one writ of execution from Mosoblgaz already in production...

Well, about private property and the money spent by citizens, of course, they forgot.