Dhaka: Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Monday demanded the government carry out a neutral and fair investigation into the allegation of rotten wheat import from Brazil.

Addressing a press briefing at the party’s Nayapaltan central office, its spokesman Dr Asaduzzaman Ripon also urged Food Minister Qamrul Islam to temporarily stay away from his office for the sake of a fair investigation.

‘There has been a controversy over the import of rotten and uneatable wheat from Brazil by the Food Ministry. The imported wheat, which is even not fit for consumption by cattle, is supplied to different places of the country and stored in many silos,’ he said.

The BNP leader further said, ‘Under the circumstances, we demand that a probe committee be formed to find out the masterminds of the incident and brought them to justice for plundering crores of public money by importing uneatable, rotten and contaminated wheat for people’s consumption.’

He also condemned the government’s inaction to look into the matter even after different media reports on it surfaced.

Ripon said their party thinks a fair investigation is not possible keeping Food Minister Qamrul Islam in his office as the wheat was imported with his consent and direction. ‘So, he shouldn’t be there in office when the probe will be carried out.’

‘We hope the minister himself will step aside temporarily as the allegation of irregularities brought against his ministry. We hope he’ll set a good example through a fair investigation,’ the BNP leader added.

Earlier on Saturday, the Food Minister told parliament that the government will not import wheat from Brazil any more because of its poor quality.

‘We won’t import Brazilian wheat any more. If necessary, we’ll destroy the already imported wheat upon receiving the test reports. It looks bad,’ he told Parliament in the wake of media criticism for importing two lakh metric tonnes of alleged substandard Brazilian wheat.

Qamrul, however, said it is still not proved that the imported wheat is rotten adding that his ministry tested the wheat in its own laboratory and two other laboratories and did not found the wheat inappropriate for consumption.

Ripon criticised the government for importing wheat when around 3.25 lakh metric tonnes of wheat remained stored at the country’s silos. ‘The country will incur a loss of Tk 100 crore through importing the wheat.’

He alleged that the wheat was imported only to make heavier the pockets of the ministers and MPs when there was no demand of the food item.