Anomalies alleged in wheat procurement

CHARSADDA: Irregularities have been detected in wheat procurement in the Food Department, Charsadda, sources said on Monday.

They said that the District Food Controller (DFC) Salahuddin had allegedly violated rules and regulations and purchased 424 metric tonnes of wheat from the two blue-eyed dealers instead of buying the staple commodity from the growers as per the government directives.

According to the provincial government, the Charsadda Food Department was tasked to procure 30,000 metric tonnes of wheat from the local farmers from May 10 to 17.

It was also directed that if the required quota of wheat from farmers was not met due to certain reasons, then the commodity should be purchased from the

dealers.

For this purpose, a five-member committee was constituted headed by District Food Controller but the record showed that 424 metric tonnes of wheat was procured from the two dealers namely Ayaz and Naseer on different dates from May 10 to 16.

One of the dealers had even allegedly presented documents of the land of a farmer to get the quota of wheat procurement and mint money.

The committee ignored the frames in the procurement of wheat on the official rate as in the open market the price of the commodity was less than the government one, thus causing huge losses to the growers.

When contracted, DFC Salahuddin rejected the charges and said that they had fulfilled all the legal formalities while procuring the wheat as per the government directives.

He said that the department had purchased wheat grains from the farmers as per the government rules.