Staff Reporter :The Supreme Court has directed the government not to distribute the remaining amount of the imported ‘inconsumable Brazilian wheat’ to any organisation or department until further order of the court.The apex court also extended time of the stay order for two weeks, as the petitioner did not get the copy of the full verdict till the date.A four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, issued the verbal directives with extending the time after the hearing on a petition on Sunday.Earlier on 9 July, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court stayed till 26 July the observations of the High Court that the government cannot force anyone to accept the substandard wheat imported from Brazil spending Tk 400 crore.Attorney General Mahbubey Alam stood for the state while Barrister Mahab Uddin Khokon appeared before the court on behalf of the petitioner.The HC was told that a total of 2, 5, 128 metric tonnes wheat at the cost of Tk 425 crore was imported from Brazil in four phases last year. Already 1, 74, 926 tonnes wheat has been distributed under some government programmes such as Food For Work (Kabikha) and Test Relief [TR], and among police, BGB, Ansar, prison, dealers and mills.On 8 July, the High Court maintained that the government cannot compel anyone to accept the substandard wheat imported from Brazil.The HC also ordered the authorities concerned to take back the wheat distributed earlier, if anyone wants to return it.On 29 June, one Pavel Miah filed the writ petition with the High Court seeking its directives to investigate the allegation of rotten wheat import from Brazil.Later, the HC bench issued a rule asking the Director General of the Food department to explain within 72 hours whether the wheat imported from Brazil is fit for human consumption.On 5 July, the HC bench fixed July 8 for hearing on the petition after the Director General of food department submitted a report to it in compliance with its earlier order.In the report submitted through Deputy Attorney General Tapash Kumar Biswas, the court was told that the samples of imported wheat were collected from 57 food silos in different districts through executive magistrates and those were tested at the laboratory.There is an allegation that the imported Brazilian wheat is rotten and not consumable. The Director General of Food himself questioned the quality of the imported wheat as the Brazilian Agriculture Ministry and authorities of related departments did not provide any certificate in this regard.Not only that, the chemists of Food Directorate also said that the imported wheat was ‘B’ category and medium to low standard. But the then Director General of Food Directorate ordered to discharge the wheat ignoring the comments.
