Pigs Are Fed With Food Allocated for Socially Excluded People

Socially excluded residents of Dedoplistskaro, Kakheti region blame local authority for inattentiveness and apply non-governmental organizations for help.

Satenik and Liana Eloians reported to the Human Rights Center that they had been requesting for the right to get food at the free canteen for impoverished people since September 2008 but in vain. “Governor Levan Baghashvili told me they would insert me on the list after one of the beneficiaries dies. If nobody dies, shall I die of hunger?” asked Satenik Eloian, extremely impoverished person whose only income is pension and looks after his disabled child too. “We see that food remains at the canteen and personnel of the canteen take them home to feed their pigs,” said Satenik Eloian. As socially excluded people complain about the situation loudly in the building of the district administration, the personnel call them crazy intriguers. The Human Rights Center personally witnessed the incident.

Officials from the Health and Social welfare service office of Dedoplistskaro district administration deny accusations of the Eloians. Levan Jamalashvili, head of the service office, states that free canteen has as many beneficiaries as many can be fed from the sum allocated from the district budget.

Note, 80 000 GEL is envisaged in Dedoplistskaro district budget for 2009. 20 000 GEL out of the total sum will be apportioned to Asylum “Savane” which is owned by the mother of Levan Baghashvili, district governor. According to the budget free canteen shall be funded with 60 000 GEL and it is run by the wife of Gela Tetrauli, deputy district governor.

Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti