Red-faced govt to dispose off tonnes of bad wheat

DIGEST THIS! Distributors say the quality of this batch of imported red wheat is too poor for human consumption.

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New Delhi: Amid rising inflation and a looming global food crisis, the Maharashtra government has decided to dispose 32,000 tonnes of imported red wheat because much of it is unfit for human consumption.

An order, sanctioning the disposal, was issued on May 9 by the state government.

This wheat was given to the state to be distributed through the public distribution system (PDS) before October 31, 2007, but the poor quality of the imported wheat led to protests and it had no takers.

The wheat bags have been lying in public godowns across the state and it will now be sold through an open tender at a base price of Rs 670 per quintal.

That portion of wheat, which is not fit for human consumption, will be auctioned to poultry farmers as chicken feed. And the imported red wheat that is not fit for either human or animal consumption will be buried.

CNN-IBN had first reported that the Government of India had imported approximately seven million tonnes of red wheat unfit for human consumption in the past two years, to be distributed through the PDS.

The latest wheat import controversy could now raise even more embarrassing questions for the Centre and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who had recently said that India had no need to import wheat this year.

The wheat crisis

• Imported wheat to be classified into three categories:

  (a) Imported red wheat fit for human consumption

  (b) Imported red wheat fit for animal consumption

  (c) Imported red wheat unfit for either human or animal consumption

• The base price is Rs 670 per tonnes, almost half the cost of the import price.
• The wheat could have fed more than two lakh people for more than a year.
• Redistribution of wheat would have been a logistical nightmare, sources tell CNN-IBN.
• The government order came on May 9, after it got the go ahead from the central Government.
• India imported approximately seven million tonnes of wheat in the past two years.