DADU, April 2 Growers of Dadu and Jamshoro districts have complained that the food department has failed to launch wheat procurement campaign in their areas while middlemen have set up camps with connivance of local food officials to purchase the grain.

They told this correspondent that the food officials had not supplied them gunny bags and their wheat stocks had been lying in the open in fields while the middlemen had already arrived here from Karachi, Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas.

The government has set a target of collecting 2.490 million bags for Dadu and Jamshoro districts for current season. The target last year was 1.9 million bags and 1.775 million bags had been bought.

A grower Hassan Panhwar said that small growers had not received gunny bags. Around 0.5 million maund wheat was lying in the open in fields in Johi taluka but no food officials had so far contacted the growers, he said.

He said that traders from Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas had set up camps and started purchasing wheat at the rate Rs2,450 per bag while the government rate was Rs2,375.

He alleged that food officials were extorting transport charges from growers.

A grower of Phulji, Shahnawaz Jamali, said that food officials were buying wheat from big growers in Katcho area and they had also paid them millions of rupees in advance.

He accused food officials of demanding Rs50 per bag as commission.

A grower of Sehwan, Nabi Bux, said that around one million bags were lying in fields in the katcha area of Sehwan and Laki Shah Saddar. Food officials were deducting transport charges and demanding Rs50 per gunny bag, he said.

If a grower refused to pay the officials threatened not to buy the grain from him, he said. He said that food officials were busy purchasing wheat from influential landlords and claimed that the wheat was being transported to other districts.

A grower of Pyaro goth Mohammad Hanif said that wheat procurement season had officially started from March 15 but food officials had not yet started procurement from small growers.

District food controller of Dadu Zahid Hussain Baloch said that 27 procurement centres had been set up in Dadu and Jamshoro districts to meet target of buying 2.49 million bags.