Rotten wheat brought again

Sagar Biswas :A powerful syndicate has reportedly been trying to unload around one lakh metric tons of rotten wheat at Chittagong Port. The wheat has been imported from Russia under a ‘faulty deal’ signed by the Directorate of Food.The importer MS Phonix Commodities MCC in connivance with some dishonest officials of Food Ministry and Chittagong Port Authority [CPA] is now allegedly trying to handover the rotten wheat to some private buyers, when Food Directorate formally refused to receive the consignment fearing legal action in future.Sources close to the CPA told The New Nation on Wednesday that the syndicate become very active to unload the consignment after the Food Directorate issued a letter to the importer to take back the wheat terming it ‘sub-standard’ and ‘inconsumable’.Significantly, the rotten wheat-laden two ships – MV Spar Libra and MV Equinox Dawn — are still waiting at the Chittagong Port, whereas, they were asked to go back to the country of origin along with their consignment, the sources said. “A total of 99, 300 metric tons of wheat have been imported. Of them, the ship Spar Libra arrived at the Chittagong Port in the last week of March loading 51,000 metric tons of wheat from Russia. Besides, carrying 48,300 metric tons of wheat, another ship Equinox Dawn arrived here on Thursday last,” an official of the CPA said. “We have issued an official letter to the supplier companies on Monday, as the imported wheat from Russia was sub-standard. After conducting laboratory test, we have found that the wheat has almost been damaged, rotten and inconsumable,” Sheikh Roka Mia, Additional Director of Food Directorate said.”After collecting sample from MV Spar Libra, we have conducted laboratory test in nine specific sections to ensure standard of the wheat. It was found that the quantity of bran [bhusi] is 1.8 percent, which is much higher than expected level [0.7 per cent]. So, we refused to receive the consignment of wheat,” he said. When contacted, Managing Director of shipping agent Uniship, Abul Hossain, said, “Yes, we have received the copy of the letter issued by the Food Directorate through e-mail. In the letter, the Food Directorate has registered objection about 51,000 metric tons of wheat terming it as sub-standard.”Admitting the fact, he further said, “Now, we are trying to unload the wheat and give it to any private company. However, we will take final decision after getting green signal from Food Directorate.”Another ship loading 50, 000 metric tons of wheat from Russia is now heading towards Bangladesh, which is expected to anchor in Chittagong Port on April 20.It is learnt that, the importers tried to unload about 30, 600 metric tons of wheat of MV Spar Libra at Chittagong Port and 20, 400 metric tons at Mongla Port. Besides, 28,980 metric tons of wheat from MV Equinox Dawn was scheduled to be unloaded at Chittagong Port and rest 19, 320 metric tons at Mongla Port. Not only that, another ship which is now heading towards Bangladesh, is scheduled to unload 40 percent of its consignment at Mongla Port. Last year, the Food Directorate under a ‘faulty deal’ imported two lakh metric tons of wheat at a cost of Tk 400 crore from Brazil. It also imported one lakh metric tons of sub-standard wheat from France spending huge amount of public money.And the wheat was distributed to different districts for use in Test Relief, Food for Work and Vulnerable Group Development [VGD] Programmes under the auspices of the ministry. 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, according to sources.