The Sofia Echo

About 200 illegally built shacks and other temporary buildings, as well as fishing villages, are to be razed in the space of 20 days, the private Bulgarian television channel bTV reported on October 27 2010.

Huts, some buildings considered as ‘solid’ or ‘permanent’ construction, and summer homes are also earmarked for bulldozing around the Varna Lake because the municipality is contemplating using the land to construct the second Asparouhov Bridge, the report said.

In one such fishing village near the lake, there about 40 permanent residents, and some of them have already received their eviction orders, obliging them to clear out within three weeks.

“We don’t have title deeds for the land itself. But we do have permission to erect here temporary buildings. We have been here for more than 40 years,” Nedelcho Yordanov, a fisherman, told bTV.

But local authorities have remained adamant that the parcels around the lake, which belong to the state, need to be cleared.

“We will do what we can in accordance with our authority and jurisdiction. We will be demolishing some of those buildings and hand out the rest of the orders so we can maintain our schedule,” deputy mayor Vesselin Petrov told bTV.

“Those who don’t leave voluntarily, will be evicted,” he added.

Photo Spas Spasov