State govt labels wheat rotten but will sell it

BAKE THIS: Maharashtra government hopes bakers will buy rejected wheat.

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Mumbai: The Maharashtra government declared 12,000 tonnes of imported red wheat unfit for human consumption but has allowed half of it to be put on auction.

The wheat was imported last year at Rs 1200 per tonne but was found rotten and infested with insects when it arrived in Maharashtra. Ironically, the state government expects bakeries will buy the wheat in bulk when it is put up for auction.

The government’s expectation defies logic, as it has declared that the wheat is not fit for distribution through the public distribution system (PDS). Tests conducted in November 2007 showed 42 percent of the wheat was rotten, mainly due to a high uric acid content.

A part of the consignment was stored in a godown in Vikramgad in Thane district and tests declared it fit for consumption though it was part of the same consignment. But CNN-IBN found that this wheat too was rotten and didn’t find buyers when it was sent out for distribution.

BJP leader called the decision to import wheat a scandal. “This is nothing but a scam. The government brought this wheat in when there was no shortage. Our production was the same and our demand through the PDS was 140 lakh tonnes, so what was the need to import this wheat?” he said.

Sunil Tatkare, Maharashtra’s Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, admitted the wheat kept at the Vikramgad godown maybe contaminated or meant for animals. “That may have been meant for animal feed, so I have no objection to what you saw,” Tatkare told CNN-IBN.

The admission will not change the government’s policy though. It is going ahead and inviting tenders from private parties to buy the wheat that was never meant for the open market in the first place.