Stallholders in Kabul’s PD4 complain about Municipal actions

KABUL (TOLOnews): Several stallholders in PD4 of Kabul have complained about their stalls being removed by the Kabul Municipality.

They claim that despite having paid their rent, their stalls in the Taimani market are still being collected.

Rahmatullah, a street vendor, said, “We were paying the rent, and here, people are not left to their own devices; they have always paid the tariff.”

Another street vendor, Abdul Jamil, said, “They gather everyone’s stalls from here and take them to an unspecified fate; there are about thirty thousand or more breadwinners in this area from these street vendors.”

Safauddin, another vendor, told TOLOnews reporter, “The district suddenly decided to dismiss us, saying they would take our stalls at night, and we wouldn’t even have the right to complain.”

Noor Agha, a vendor in Kabul’s Taimani market, said he had bought a stall two years ago for 16,000 Afghanis to provide for his family, but now he is worried about it being collected.

Noor Agha told a TOLOnews reporter, “I am completely broke right now, all our goods are basically debts; I have just paid off half of it, and now I am gathering the rest to take home, I don’t have the money to buy anything else.”

Meanwhile, the Kabul Municipality says that to create order in the city, the stalls from District 4 are being removed and relocated to a specific designated area.

Nematullah Barakzai, a representative of the Kabul Municipality, said, “In the Taimani area of District 4, a specific space has been prepared for those who work as street vendors, and we ask everyone to operate in those areas; otherwise, the Kabul Municipality does not allow anyone to block the street or sidewalk.”

In the year 1401 of the solar year, the Kabul Municipality implemented a plan to reduce congestion on roads and highways by setting up stalls for street vendors in the city of Kabul.