23 October 2001
Mikashevichi demands town status

 Mikashevichi, a community of some 14,500 people in southern Belarus, has applied to the government of the Brest region for being granted town status. Mikashevichi's three previous applications, filed in 1982, 1986 and 1987, were all rejected by the Council of Ministers while Belarus was still a republic within the Soviet Union. Now the matter is in the hands of the Brest Regional Soviet.
The application has already been approved in Luninets, the capital of the district. Town status would give Mikashevichi no special privileges, so it is rather a matter of ambition, an official in Luninets commented to
BelaPAN.
Mikashevichi has a large state-run granite plant called Granit, a precast concrete factory called Spetszhelezobeton, as well as several construction companies. It has a river port, a railroad station, a hospital, a health resort, a Palace of Culture, and four general education schools.