Govt bread for pandemic relief unfairly distributed: Residents

Monitoring Desk

KABUL: The Afghan government has pledged to distribute 650 tons of flour to 1,343 bakeries to low-income families across the country. The plan calls for $2 million to be spent every week to distribute the bread to 250,000 families who are hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis. But some Kabul residents criticized the process and said it is not running fairly, with some saying it is “corrupt.”

“The bakery made 200 nans but the representative (of the locality) has told them to say they have baked 2,000 nans for distribution if someone asked,” said Jawed, a Kabul resident, who joined others to protest alleged corruption in the process.

“They took the bags of flour to their home but later police came and there was a deal between them and only three bags of the flour was returned,” said Naqshband, a Kabul resident, who pointed at their representative.

“Bread was emptied out from the bakery for the last two days. Some bread was distributed to their relatives, but the needy did not benefit,” said Nasir Ahmad, a Kabul resident.

Similar problems were reported by residents in various parts of Kabul.

“We have complaints against the representative of the area. He has registered five people from one family. But, for us, who are vulnerable, nothing has been done,” said Mohammad Kabir, a Kabul resident.

The head of the union of bakeries, Haji Ghulamuddin, said there isn’t any contract between the Kabul Municipality and bakeries and that the municipality, instead, has signed a contract with representatives of localities.

“We are not in the loop. We were asked to provide a list of bakeries that we sent to them, but we are not aware of the next steps,” he said. (TOLOnews)