Green areas disappear in Bălți and the environment is consequently affected and the inhabitants of the town suffer, said eco-activist Maxim Burduja, who blames the local public administration for such a state of affairs. In a news conference at IPN, Maxim Burduja said the green areas become private property and constructions are erected there. The authorities are not interested in keeping these areas for the population and only civil society assumed this commitment.

The eco-activist said that in time the Bălți Municipal Council violated the legislation on the management of cultural heritage for several times. A relevant example is the decisions of 2013-2014 by which two lost situated in the Public Garden in Bălți were sold at a derisory price. Recently, the Bălți Appeals Court ruled that the parcels shouldn’t have been sold as they are public property.

Maxim Burduja noted that the law bans erecting buildings in green areas without an ecological assessment and without the consent of the people who live nearby. But these provisions are ignored. The authorities issue building and trading authorizations at very low prices. As a result, a number of buildings were constructed in the Public Garden.

Ion Ștefăniță, director of the Agency for Monument Inspection and Restoration, in the same news conference said the illegalities started in 2000, when a number of business entities, enjoying the support of public functionaries, managed to appropriate the given parcels that were publicly owned. “We do not act against business entities. We want the law to triumph. The private individuals and legal entities, including the public functionaries who serve the people, should obey the law,” he stated.