DUSHANBE, September 5, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- The Dushanbe mayor’s office has allocated more than 1.2 million somonis (TJS) to provide extraordinary grants to 8,000 vulnerable people and other categories of the population on occasion of Tajikistan’s Independence Day. 

 Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, Shavkat Saidov, a spokesman for the Dushanbe mayor, said that the beneficiaries include veterans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, participants of the cleanup operation at the Chernobyl nuclear power station, veterans of the Soviet-Afghan war, families that lost their bread-winners during restoration of the constitutional order in the country, etc.