In 2008, about ten thousand persons lodged complaints and applications to Dagestan leaders

Last year, the President's administration and the Government of Dagestan received about 10,000 applications from residents of the Republic; the majority of them were on housing issues and municipal services.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed at the press centre of the President and Government of Dagestan that 3863 (or 39% of the total) complaints were connected with housing issues and household services; 1486 (15%) - on public health services, social protection of the population and pensions; 657 (6.6%) - on work of law-enforcement and judicial bodies; 537 (5.4%) - on culture, sciences and education; 444 (4.5%) - on work of managerial bodies, etc.

Ramazan Aliev, head of the Administration of the President and Government of Dagestan, has reported that "one of the main social problems is still an insufficient level of legal knowledge in the population, by this virtue citizens address the President and Government of Dagestan because of mere unawareness of their rights."

Mr Aliev has also stated that the above huge numbers of applications referring to the competence of municipalities indicates that many power bodies fail to pay due attention to citizens' complaints.

According to his version, the overwhelming majority of complaints are on unsatisfactory operation of municipal services of Makhachkala and chaotic construction of dwelling houses without coordination of building documentation which, in the opinion of citizens, is admitted with the connivance of local authorities.

See earlier reports: "In Dagestan, lawyers complain of being prosecuted by law enforcers," ""Afghans" go on hunger strike in Dagestan," "European Court for Human Rights accepts a complaint from Dagestan."