22 May 2004	Saturday	02 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

CHITRAL, May 21: Officials of the district food department have started destroying a large quantity of wheat found unfit for human consumption. The spoilt wheat was stored in warehouses.

Over 1,200 bags of wheat were thrown into the Chitral River at the Chew Bridge. The total stock is reported to be over 15,000 tonnes. Officials said that they were destroying the old stock on the directives of higher authorities. The exercise, they added, would take one more week to complete.

People had accused food department officials of being involved in mixing wheat from the old stock with the new harvest and selling the mixture as quality wheat. People of the Laspur valley had returned two truckloads of such wheat to the authorities, who had initiated an inquiry.

However, the matter was later reported to have been hushed up. Workers of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal are monitoring the process of destroying the sub-standard wheat on behalf of members of the provincial assembly.