HYDERABAD, Jan 21: Officials of the food department posted at the Bulhari wheat godowns on Sunday rejected claims that the godown was providing unhygienic wheta to the floor mills of Hyderabad and Kotri and said that they were supplying good quality wheat.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club, assistant food controller and in-charge of Bulhari godowns Zulfiqar Ali Mallah, food inspectors Roshan Ali and Mohammad Aslam Memon said that 139,420 bags of wheat were lying outside the godowns out of which 72,043 were supplied to the flour mills and chakki owners of Hyderabad and Kotri and 67,377 bags were still lying in the open.

They said that the godowns supplied between 5000 to 6000 bags to the mill and chakki owners daily, which they transported after checking it.

They said that the recent heavy rains damaged some wheat about which they had informed the senior officers on time. They kept the spoiled wheat in separate places away from healthy wheat and supplied it in the presence of committees appointed by the authorities concerned after signing a relevant register.

They said that the mill owners personally selected the wheat for grinding. Heavy rains were a natural calamity which wreaked widespread devastation throughout the province and also damaged some bags of wheat, they said.

They said that they had covered the wheat with heavy canvass sheets but many of them were torn up in strong winds and some quantity of uncovered wheat was spoiled.