August 26, 2006	Saturday	Sha'aban 1, 1427

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SAHIWAL, Aug 25: A scandal involving the sale of ‘surplus’ wheat stored in the food department godowns here surfaced on Friday after the impounding of a wheat-laden trailer by the police.

The trailer carrying 600 bags of 100kg each was impounded on a nazim’s complaint by the Dera Rahim police after it left the wheat godowns of Chak 150/9-L.

Its driver, identified as Ahmed, told police that this was his fifth such trip from the same godown. In each trip 600 bags of wheat were delivered to different mills without bringing the sale on record.

Police had reportedly conducted the raid in the accompany of Qamar Chaudhry, the union council nazim of Chak 150/9-L.

Sources say food department procurement staff end up with surplus wheat every year which is sold by the corrupt without brining it on record. At the procurement time each farmer is made to deliver 2kg wheat against a 100kg bag (to offset impurities like dust, chaff in each bag). This practice, though rampant, has no legal cover.

Similarly, the stored wheat gathers moisture during the wet season which increases it weight. As a result the department gets ample surplus wheat during this time of the year.

As each district procures hundreds of thousands of tons wheat each year, the surplus is also in hundreds of tons.