July 7, 2010
Wheat damage in Pakistani province to be investigated
Around 40,000 wheat bags have been found rotting in the open in parts of Sindh after the contractors abandoned the deals for lifting them to the warehouses, an official of Sindh Food Department said Tuesday (July 6).
"As many as 5,000 to 10,000 bags of wheat each on more than eight open places in Sindh have been rotting since no contractor could return to lift the grain to the safer places", an official of procurement department said.
The row between the contractors and the Sindh Food Department has risen when the officials of food department favoured some of the contractors, he said.
"Most of the contractors were dears and nears of the officials and were not registered on the food department's contractors list," members of Sindh Agriculture Forum (SAF) said.
"On the reports of damage to wheat in the open worth millions of rupees, President Asif Ali Zardari took notice of the situation and ordered an inquiry and ordered to store around one million bags in warehouses of Sanghar, Shahdadpur and its adjoining areas," senior member SAF, Shakeel Ahmad said.
Ahmad said the sites where 5,000 to 10,000 bags of wheat have been damaged due to lying in the open include Sanghar, Khipro, Polimal, Sanjero, Jhol and beside petrol pumps, ginning factories and open yards.
He said Sindh Food Department has failed to devise a plan for the storage of wheat bags and due to delay in releasing wheat lifting quota contracts to the contractors, consumers would face shortage of the commodity.
He said poor vigilance by the authorities, the supply of poor grade bags also contributed to the colossal damage to the wheat. The heaps of wheat bags were simply covered with the tarpaulin and in most of the areas, the people took away the commodity on their own will by cutting bags.
"There was no watch and ward facility to keep an eye on the wheat bags, which is a sheer ignorance on the part of Food Department," said Ahmad.
"The Sindh food department and PASCO after reaching to an agreement were bound to take care of the commodity and the release of the required quantity with two-month period in the market," he added.
Members of the SAF appealed to the President Asif Zardari to take cognisance of the situation as the Sindh government and Sindh Food Department have failed to save the commodity and were also responsible for incurring a colossal loss to national exchequer.
He said according to the Sindh Food Department, wheat release process to mills and Chakkies has to start from August 2010.
