Sagar Biswas :
In the wake of widespread criticism, the Ministry of Food has ultimately admitted its ‘faulty deal’ for importing 2 lakh metric tonnes of wheat at a cost of Tk 400 crore from Brazil.
But strangely, the ministry has yet 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 food grains spending huge public money.
Food Minister Qamrul Islam on Saturday 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 Ministry 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 Ministry. Official sources said that the rotten wheat have been distributed through above mentioned projects in Kurigram, Joypurhat, Badarban, 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, including Police, BGB, Ansar and Department of Prison.
In this backdrop, the Food Minister clearing media criticism over substandard wheat said, “It is still not proved that the imported wheat is rotten. Food Ministry tested the wheat in its own laboratory and two other laboratories. They did not found the wheat inappropriate for consumption.”
It is learnt that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has expressed severe annoyance over the issue and asked for an explanation from the concerned ministry.
In this regard, Qamrul said, “Somebody sent some sample of the wheat to Prime Minister. Naturally, the PM expressed her annoyance over the issue. I along with the Food Secretary have met the PM to discuss the matter.”
Qamrul blamed the Ukraine-Russia crisis behind importing wheat from Brazil. “A Memorandum of Understanding for importing five lakh metric tonnes of wheat from Ukraine was signed during the previous term of the government. But the wheat could not be imported as communication collapsed with Ukraine suddenly.”
He said the country’s wheat stock came down to 68000 metric tonnes which prompted the Food Ministry to import wheat from Brazil. “After floating tender, two lowest bidders applied to supply Brazilian wheat. We had no earlier experience of buying such wheat. So we sent the sample of wheat to Science Laboratory and another laboratory for experiment. This wheat is red and small.”
“Already the consignment of wheat has gone to the godowns of district level. Now we have asked the district administrations to send sample of wheat through district magistrates. We have already got samples from 15-16 districts. We will send the samples to laboratory for test,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Food Ministry has made the Director General of Directorate of Food Md Sarwar as a scapegoat making him an OSD in secret. But the overall issue has been kept suppressed.
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 Ministry syndicate in connivance of some corrupt officials.
