0.1m wheat bags rot in Dadu

DADU: More than 100,000 bags of wheat are rotting in Dadu district as the food department delayed transporting them to flour mills for at least two months.

In April this year, the food department procured around 2.2 million bags of wheat, which is close to its target of 2.4 million bags. But it failed to make proper arrangements to store the supply, The Express Tribune has learnt. The bags that did make their way to the flour mills were transported very slowly by only two to three truckloads every day.

Several bags have been lying out in the open at 11 outlets of the 30 centres operated by the food department in Dadu district. The rains that started in the region 10 days ago have threatened the province’s wheat supply for the year.

The department would have succeeded in removing evidence of the rotten bags had the smell not spread at a one-kilometre radius around the centres, bringing the matter to the notice of residents.

According to officials, who requested to remain anonymous, bags of rotten wheat in Sita village are being dried in the sun and the bad wheat is being mixed with fresh wheat. The bags, containing a mixture of both types of wheat, are then being transported in trucks to the nearby Golari godown, from where they are being supplied to flour mills in the cities.

The food department buys wheat from farmers in April every year and then supplies it within that month to flour mills in different areas where wheat is not grown. This year, however, the department kept the wheat bags at its centres for over four months.

The wheat bags bought from the growers are worth Rs2,360 each and weigh 104 kilogrammes (kg). The department usually tells farmers to add an extra 4kg to compensate for any damp grain that may dry and lose weight in the future. The growers are also expected to deliver these bags to the food department’s outlets.

The department insists that it will only buy the best quality wheat from growers and once they receive the crop, they mix it with other things and then pass it forward, said a resident.

Residents of Dadu blamed the department for deliberately sabotaging the wheat procurement this year and not taking precautions during the rain as they believed it wanted to keep more wheat for itself. Around 20,000 bags of wheat washed away in the heavy rains that lashed the district but the residents alleged that the department wanted to portray as if it lost more bags.

The department would have claimed to have lost 50,000 bags and then filled the remaining bags with water and mud to add weight to each bag, said the residents, adding that out of the 100kgs in a bag, officials take out at least 8kgs of wheat and mix the remaining with water.

When the wheat bags are supplied to flour mills in Bolahri near Kotri, the Pipri godown in Karachi, Kotri and Hyderabad, each bag weighs 100kg and is sold at a profit of up to Rs300.

Senior officials at the food department were reluctant to comment on the issue.

District administrator and DCO Dadu Iqbal Memon agreed that a scam has taken place in wheat procurement. He talked to the media at the press club on Friday and said that he has informed the Sindh chief secretary of the fraud.

Memon also promised that the rotten wheat will be sent for testing to a laboratory because it may be harmful for consumers. He added that he will write to the Sindh government to take action against the department officials.

Residents have claimed that similar instances have taken place before but they were never publicised. Some believed that the matter went out of the hands of the food department as it never expected such a large number of bags would go bad.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 17^th, 2010.