LAHORE, April 26: The food secretary said on Friday that ample quantity of gunny bags were available at 292 purchase centres of the department.

Speaking at a press conference here, the secretary claimed that if required more gunny bags could be purchased without any delay. The department was procuring only the fair average quality (FAQ) wheat and all employees were under strict instructions not to reject crop for export quality excuse.

The department had already purchased wheat worth Rs70 million and 42 of its employees under investigation for disciplinary lapses. They were working under vigilant eyes of army monitoring officers and the district government in addition to the department’s own surveillance teams.

The secretary claimed that the government was determined to end the role of middlemen and farmers must not fall prey to them. At some places, the secretary said, the size of wheat grain remained small due to water shortage, but this could not be used as an excuse to reject any quantity of crop. If happened so, farmers must inform the department and the defaulter would be taken to task. He told reporters that the department fired 13 employees last year for failure to observe set standards and this year would be no exception either.