Substandard wheat imported again

The Khulna regional office of the Directorate General of Food has refused to receive 21,000 tonne wheat imported from France as it has found the food grains unfit for human consumption.
MV Pintel, a flag career of Cyprus, loaded with the wheat, has been lying stranded with 19 crew at Mongla port since October 12, said officials concerned.
Food officials said that 52,500 tonne wheat was imported from France carried by MV Pintel and 31,500 tonnes of the wheat were unloaded at Chittagong port and the rest 21,000 tonnes were sent to Khulna.
Khulna regional controller of food Kazi Nurul Islam, also convener of the wheat unloading monitoring committee told New Age on Sunday that they did not allow the unloading of the wheat as a six member quality control committee found them unfit for human consumption.
The quality control committee, headed by Kazi Nurul Islam, collected samples of the wheat on October 13 and sent to Dhaka for chemical tests, Nurul said.
Syed Murtaza Ali, manager of Lidmond Shipping, the local agent of the ship, admitted that the wheat contained excessive dust.
He said that he appointed stevedore Khalid Brothers for unloading the wheat.
Khalid Brothers proprietor Sheikh Jahangir Hossain said that he was waiting for green signal from the regional food office for unloading the wheat.
The government in February imported two lakh tonnes of wheat from Brazil through international tender and 85 per cent of the wheat was distributed among people through different channels before the media reported in June that the wheat was unsafe for human consumption.
On July 26, the Appellate Division prohibited distribution of the wheat in question after the attorney general moved the appeal for staying a High Court verdict that had prohibited forcing unwilling citizens as well as private and government organisations to take undistributed wheat.
The apex court, however, on August 20 lifted the ban it had imposed on the distribution of lower quality wheat after the attorney general told the court that the government would no move the appeal as none came to return wheat and no one was forced to take accept the undistributed wheat either following the High Court verdict.

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