The vice president of the Liberal Party (PL) Dorin Chirtoaca said that the rural roads are damaged, the villages remain non-gasified, but the authorities did not take steps to remedy the situation and did not invest money in the rural infrastructure during the last few years, Info-Prim Neo reports. “The rural infrastructure in Moldova has worsened and the people meet with difficulties when traveling from a settlement to another. In order to reach Balti, one should go along a field because the street is now being constructed and the bridge cannot be crossed. To get to Corjeuti from Briceni, one has to cross a pond by car as the road now finishes in that pond,” Chirtoaca told a news conference. “The authorities should give priority to the rural settlements. The municipality of Chisinau in 2009 invested mainly in suburbs, while the state reduced the current expenditure for the Moldovan villages and the volume of investment. 20% of the funds from the municipal budget are allocated to suburbs. The state authorities yet provided no social assistance to the persons that have incomes lower than the minimum subsistence level,” said Dorin Chirtoaca, who resigned as Mayor General of Chisinau for the period of the election campaign. According to Chirtoaca, the authorities must strengthen the social sphere so that the people have a decent salary, pension and living. The PL members criticized the Moldovan Village Program initiated by the authorities in 2005. The given program contains unachievable objectives. After many years of lies, the rural infrastructure remains outdated or even absent. Half of the rural population lives below the poverty level,” said Valeriu Munteanu, mayor of Floreni and candidate for the PL. He also said that the Ministry of Local Public Administration is a phantom institution seen only on TV, as the local public administration has never received support from this ministry.