Food Minister Qamrul Islam has told the parliament that some newspapers have been publishing baseless and politically motivated reports on imported wheat.
“News published in some newspapers on importing the substandard wheat and the involvement of the minister concerned with the process – was completely wrong, baseless and politically motivated,” he said responding to a query of a lawmaker in the parliament.
“It was reported that the wheat is rotten and inedible; but we see no grounds for the news. There is no basis of the picture published in newspapers. The published pictures are not of our wheat.”
Qamrul also said anyone can take a sample of the imported wheat for laboratory test to analyse the quality of the wheat.
“Newspapers reported that the [imported] wheat is substandard. But it has been proven in the laboratory tests that the wheat is edible. Brazilian wheat looks bad and no one likes it. But it is standard wheat.”
He also commented on claims regarding the wheat being insect-infested. “It is natural that if any food grain is kept stored for long without medicine, these may become infested with insects.”
Denying his involvement in Brazilian wheat import, Qamrul also said the Directorate General of Food did everything.
“The food directorate floated tender … subsequently it paid the bills. Food directorate does everything; there is nothing to do with the ministry. Even the food minister does not check the final bills,” he said.
The minister added that two lakh tonnes of wheat was imported, and of the amount – 174,926 tonnes have already been distributed and only 25 tonnes now remain in storage.
“But no bad news was found during the four-month distribution,” the minister pointed out.
“I have talked to the lawmakers. I came to know that there is a conflict between lawmaker and upazila chairman and that is why such incidents take place.”
Regarding BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s comment on wheat importing, Qamrul said, “She is trying to do politics with it. She was behind the killings of many innocent people and is now spreading falsehood against the government.”
