PESHAWAR, Oct 7: An official of the NWFP health department on Tuesday cautioned the people against using vegetable oil being offered for auction.

The NWFP health department, he said, would auction damaged drums, containing 2,200 litres of vegetable oil on Wednesday.

He said that the World Food Programme had allocated Rs90 million for its two-year programme for distributing 711 tonnes of vegetable oil, encouraging women to attend its pre-natal healthcare programme in seven districts of the province. It had already supplied 350 tonnes last year, while 361 tonnes of vegetable oil were to be distributed this year.

The official said that some of drums containing vegetable oil had been damaged while being transported from Karachi to the healthcare depot in Azakhel, forcing the department to auction it instead of giving the commodity to the women.

The official said that the department had urged bidders to use the oil only in soap manufacturing but the successful bidder would be free to sell the commodity in the open market and the commodity might be used for edible purposes.

He said that a laboratory analysis was yet to be carried out to ascertain the quality of the vegetable oil.

The bulk of the oil had been supplied to the upper and lower Dir, Swat, Buner, Kohistan, Mansehra and Battagram areas.

The WFP has been assisting the health department to improve the women and child healthcare system. According to rough estimates, about 1,500 out of 100,000 pregnant women died because of malnutrition and lack of trained attendants at birth.

Bidders, the official said, were interested in purchasing the oil because they expect to earn a hefty profit, adding that the market price of vegetable oil was Rs35 per litre, while the department expected to receive a maximum bid of around Rs22 per litre.

Officials said that the health department would earn about Rs200,000 from the oil’s sale but cautioned people against using the vegetable oil for edible purposes.