Court Orders Almaty Officials to Disclose Information on Kok-Zhailyau Road Project
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A court has ordered Almaty’s Tourism Department to disclose information about a road project to Kok-Zhailyau. The environmental group Green Salvation won the case in two instances, Orda.kz reports.
The case was first reported on Green Salvation’s website. The group’s head, Sergey Kuratov, also gave a separate comment to Orda.kz.
In October 2024, environmentalists found a tender on the public procurement portal for an “analysis of the current situation and development of measures to improve transport accessibility to tourist facilities in Ile-Alatau National Park.” They requested the report to review its contents and submit comments.
The Tourism Department refused to provide it. Officials said the information was closed and “had nothing to do with the environment,” although the project concerned construction inside a national park.
In this way, the state body violated our right to receive reliable environmental information. Without access to full information, the public is deprived of the opportunity to effectively participate in decision-making,Sergey Kuratov, head of Green Salvation, said.
The group went to court. Almaty’s specialized interdistrict administrative court ruled in favor of the environmentalists. The Tourism Department appealed, but the city court upheld the decision.
The public interest in ensuring access to information about planned activities in a specially protected natural area outweighs the state body’s interest in not disclosing internal analytical material,the judicial panel said in its ruling.
According to Kuratov, the court decision is more important than the specific document itself. Environmentalists believe public hearings on the Kok-Zhailyau road project were illegal because the public was not given full information about the project. They believe the same applies to other hearings on the development of Almaty’s mountain cluster.
The hearings were held after decisions on the projects had already been made. This is a clear violation of public rights,Kuratov said.
Original author: Danil Utyupin
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