Businessman Iurie Nastas, one of the owners of the stone quarry SRL “Ivanos”, which exploits the quarry in Orhei, said the mayor of the town Ilan Shor intends to appropriate the quarry. The accusation was made after the Chisinau Appeals Court ordered stopping any economic activity in the perimeter of the quarry. At the same time, the Orhei mayor’s office says SRL “Ivanos” works illegally, without paying for the exploitation of the quarry starting with 1997, IPN reports, quoting two press releases of the sides involved in the conflict.

The Orhei mayor’s office considers the quarry should be transferred back under the town’s administration. Therefore, the local authorities sued SRL “Cariera Ivanos”, asking suspending work at the quarry so as to stop causing damage to the inhabitants of the town. As a result, the Chisinau Appeals Court made a decision by which it stopped any economic activity in the perimeter of the quarry.

Alina Sargu, spokeswoman for Ilan Shor, has told IPN that the mayor’s office received a lot of petitions from residents of Orhei, who ask to close the quarry because this endangers the integrity of their homes.

In a press release, the administration of “Ivanos” says the conflict arouse in 2015, after the quarry’s owners refused to supply gravel and sand free to the mayor’s office for repairing local roads and the materials needed for rehabilitating the runway of the Chisinau International Airport, which was leased out to a company that belongs to Ilan Shor, at derisory prices.

The owners say the quarry in Orhei has been exploited by a private company since 1997 and no problems with the local public authorities were faced before the election of Ilan Shor as mayor. The suspension of work at the quarry represents an attack on private property that sets a very dangerous precedent, while 80 families of employees remain without a source of livelihood. The owners and employees of the quarry reserve the right to protest against these abuses and intend to go to the European Court of Human Rights .