MULTAN, April 24: Cotton bales worth Rs423 million procured by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan have been reduced to ashes in two incidents of fire in a warehouse in Rahim Yar Khan over the past 10 days. About 40,000 bales are said to have been destroyed in the mysterious incidents. It is learnt that some 42,000 bales procured by the TCP in 2004-05 season were stocked in the private warehouse.
According to sources, the TCP’s stock caught fire about 10 days ago and some 22,000 bales were destroyed. On Saturday night, another fire engulfed the remaining 20,000 bales.
According to reports reaching here, the fire was put out at around noon on Sunday. By then some 18,000 bales had been gutted. Only 2,000 bales could be saved.
The sources said officials of an insurance firm had completed evaluation of the first incident only a day before the TCP stock caught fire for the second time.
Local TCP authorities claimed that apparently the fire had not fully extinguished after the first incident and it ignited again, devastating almost the entire TCP stock.
TCP Chairman Syed Masood Alam Rizvi had reportedly visited Rahim Yar Khan after the first incident but it was not known whether he had ordered an inquiry into the matter and if so what had been its outcome.
The TCP had procured some 1.6m bales of cotton in the just-concluded cotton season as public sector intervention to keep prices stable for the benefit of growers in the wake of a bumper crop.
