Take back wheat if not accepted

The High Court yesterday directed the government to take back Brazilian wheat from any department or organisation if they wanted to return the grain, considering it to be unfit for consumption.

The government cannot compel anybody to receive the imported wheat if one is unwilling to do so, said the court in its verdict on a writ petition that challenged the legality of the import and distribution of the grains.

The verdict came three days after the Directorate General of Food (DGF) submitted a report to the HC, claiming that the wheat is fit for human consumption since its quality conforms to the admissible set of parameters.

Test reports reveal that the wheat is fit for human consumption, said the court. A bulk of the grains has already been consumed and there has been no report of illness or causalities. The presence of insects in wheat has not made it inedible, the HC observed.

The bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice Abu Taher Md Saifur Rahman delivered the verdict. Pabel Mia, a lawyer at Dhaka Judge's Court, had filed the writ petition on June 29, seeking an order on the Anti-Corruption Commission to launch an inquiry into the wheat import.

According to media reports, the DGF early this year bought 2 lakh tonnes of substandard Brazilian wheat.

The HC in its observation said the newspaper reports on the wheat were based on their own findings.

Sources said the food office has already distributed over 1.5 lakh tonnes of the wheat for the government's safety net schemes -- including Food for Work, Test Relief -- and also as ration for the police.

Police complained of low quality grains, prompting the food ministry to collect samples from district warehouses for testing, said ministry officials.

After testing some samples of wheat in its own laboratories last month, the food ministry claimed that the grain was fit for human consumption and its quality “conforms to the contract specifications.”

However, Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) on June 28 said all the samples supplied to it “contained higher amount of shrunken and broken kernels than the limit stated in the specification.”

It also found presence of shrunken and damaged kernels between 9.93 percent and 21.11 percent, which is above the quality parameter set by the government for import of wheat through tenders. As per government rules, any supply of wheat should be rejected if it contains more than eight percent of shrunken and damaged kernels.

The damage percentage is also higher in all samples, except in those collected from Kurigram, Gaibandha and Sirajganj, said the BCSIR test report.

The food ministry's labs also detected presence of insects in wheat samples sent from Bogra, Joypurhat, Magura, Patuakhali, Sirajganj and Sherpur.

The wheat was supplied by two contractors – the Netherlands-based Glencore Grain and Singapore-based Olam International. The import cost the government around Tk 355 crore, and 90 percent of the payment has already been made, according to ministry officials.

The grains are smaller and thinner and give less amount of flour after grinding, they said.

Most of the sample tests carried out by the BCSIR and the food ministry found that the test weight of the grains did not conform to the contract specification but was above the rejection mark.

Food Minister Qamrul Islam earlier admitted that the quality of the Brazilian wheat was lower than that of Ukraine's. 

During the hearing on the writ petition yesterday, petitioner's lawyer AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon told the court that the DGF director general made “contradictory and fraudulent” statements in his report submitted to the High Court.

Although several laboratory tests found that there were living insects in the wheat, the DG's report said the grains were fit for human consumption, argued Mahbub.

He prayed to the HC to punish the official for placing such a report before the court.

Opposing the petition, Deputy Attorney General Taposh Kumar Biswas said there is no report that the wheat has caused any human illness or causalities.