DERA GHAZI KHAN: The eight ‘modern’ silos have reportedly failed in the test run before they were to be handed over to the food department here, sources told Dawn on Saturday.

Eight silos were built in 2016 with Rs340 million. They were to preserve the quality and contents of wheat for export purposes. In April 2019, a high-level committee, consisting of officials of Nespak, food department, building and planning and development departments, was constituted to check their test run, sources said.

Food Deputy Director Shah Behram said the food department had manually de-poured wheat worth Rs1.2 million (stored in silos for a test run for two years) from the structures two months ago as the de-pouring system was not working.

He claimed wheat was extremely in good condition despite two-year storage. He said the buildings department did not hand over the silos to the food department.

Buildings Superintendent Falak Sher, however, said the construction wing of the department had constructed the silos.

Construction division SDO Iqbal Ghallu told Dawn all silos were in good shape. He said the buildings department was only the executing agency of the construction and now the matter was between the planning and development department and the food department. He denied any disorder in de-pouring system of silos established near Mana Ahmedani along the Indus Highways.

Mr Ghallu said the buildings department was not responsible for any fault in the design as a designer was hired by the food department, and if there was a deficiency in consultancy, Nespak should be held responsible. He maintained it was necessary for the food department to recruit trained staff to run the silos but nothing was done in this regard.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2021