Staff Reporter :When different quarters have raised demand for immediate resignation of food minister Qamrul Islam over the ‘bad wheat’ scandal, the food ministry on Sunday presented two reports in the High Court in a bid to prove the wheat as good one. Significantly, the food directorate still not formed any probe committee to find out the reasons and round up the persons who were involved behind the suspicious deal to import rotten, smelly and unfit 2 lakh tones of food grains from Brazil spending huge public money [Tk 425 crore].Not only that, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has expressed dissatisfaction over the issue and ordered to form a probe committee to find out to unearth the mystery behind the import of ‘bad wheat’. But that has not yet happened. On the other hand, the Food Directorate has taken all-out effort to prove its’ inconsumable’ wheat consumable before the nation. The wheat has already been distributed among police, Border Guard Bangladesh, Ansar, the prisons, dealers and flour mills and also for Test Relief and Food for Work [Kabikha] programmes ignoring public opinion.Official sources said that the rotten wheat have been distributed through above mentioned projects in Kurigram, Joypurhat, Bandarban, Mymensingh, Khulna, Dinajpur, Lalmonirhat, Chuadanga and some other districts. Though unbelievable, the rotten and substandard wheat have also been crashed to atta and distributed to different government agencies. But now several government enlisted mill owners are not showing interest to receive the wheat. In this backdrop, Kusthia-4 MP Abdur Rouf, who sent back 14 trucks of rotten wheat on Saturday refusing to store it until proved consumable, has step back from his earlier stance allegedly getting stern warning from the government high-ups.Questions have been raised, why MP Abdur Rouf now stands aside from his earlier stance? Who is giving pressure on him? Is ruling party annoyed with him for taking anti-government stance openly?Abdur Rouf, however, refrained from making any comment despite repeated attempts last night over cell phone. There is widespread allegation that the government earlier had fixed to import wheat from Ukraine. But it could not be possible due to strong irregularities by a Food Directorate syndicate in connivance of some corrupt officials. Questions have also been raised why the wheat test issue was sent to High Court. Has the court any mechanism to run laboratory test by its own resource? The Court will have to depend on laboratory tests, which are already ‘managed’ by the Food Directorate. In the wake of widespread criticism, food minister Qamrul Islam recently told the parliament that the government will not import ‘poor quality’ wheat from Brazil anymore. “We won’t import Brazilian wheat. We’ll destroy the already imported wheat upon receiving the test reports. It looks bad,” he said.The minister made the announcement apparently to clarify the stance of the food directorate in the backdrop of allegations for importing two lakh metric tonnes substandard wheat. “The government has already cancelled the packages [No 5 and 6] of one lakh tonnes of wheat from Brazil,” he said.It means, one lakh lakh tones of wheat have been imported. And the wheat has already been distributed to different districts for use in Test Relief, Food for Work and Vulnerable Group Development [VGD] Programmes under the auspices of Food Directorate. In the meanwhile, the food department in a report filed on Sunday told the High Court that the wheat imported from Brazil is consumable for human. The report was filed in accordance with the previous order after a petition was filed over the matter. The court set July 8 for next hearing. A petition was filed with the High Court seeking a probe on the matter, when the bench of justices Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Abu Taher Md Saifur Rahman ordered the government to clarify whether the wheat was suitable for human consumption.”The food department claims the wheat is consumable, but findings of other orgnasiations say it’s rotten and sub-standard. It seems that the food department’s claim is not right. The court has set July 8 as more time was sought,” Mahbub Uddin Khokon said on behalf of petitioner. On Jun 29, Pavel Miah, a lawyer, filed the petition using information available in newspaper reports. He demanded the wheat be tested by the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institute [BSTI] and Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute. He also pleaded for a probe by the Anti-Corruption Commission [ACC] to see if the wheat was ‘below standard’.Several political parties, including BNP and Jamaat-e Islami,have demanded action against those involved in the import of the wheat and called for food minister’s resignation.
