BNP on Tuesday demanded resignation of embattled Food Minister Advocate Qamrul Islam over the Brazilian rotten wheat import scandal.
“We earlier said Food Minister Qamrul Islam was the mastermind of the wheat scandal. We urge the government to drop him from the Cabinet. The government’s image will be brightened, not dented, if a corrupt minister is sacked,” said BNP spokesman Asaduzzaman Ripon.
Addressing a press briefing at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office, he also said Qamrul Islam should quit himself if he has minimum sense of shame and responsibility.
The BNP leader also demanded an explanation from the government as to why the wheat was imported from Brazil.
The Food Ministry has recently imported two lakh metric tonnes of wheat from Brazil. Different media reported that the wheat is rotten and unfit for human consumption.
Amid the controversy over the wheat import, the Food Minister on June 20 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.”
Ripon, also the BNP’s international affairs secretary, questioned the findings of the government probe into the allegation of Brazilian rotten wheat import. “We’ve said a few days back that a fair investigation is not possible keeping Qamrul Islam in his office. He has carried out a so-called investigation under his supervision as eyewash which failed to dig out the fact. It’s not an impartial enquiry.”
Mentioning that the government probe body found the quality of the wheat of 23 out of 31 silos was good, he said their party is in doubt whether Brazilian wheat was kept in the sacks from which the wheat sample was tested.
“We came to know from media reports that police force bravely refused to accept the imported wheat. Now the rotten wheat is being allocated for poor people under various projects like Food for Work (Kabikha). It’s a matter of deep regret that the wheat that police rejected is being allocated for poor people,” the BNP spokesman said.
He thanked the police forces to decline to receive the rotten wheat as they could realise that people’s health will be badly harmed consuming the substandard wheat.
Ripon also came down hard on the government for obstructing the release of BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir saying the law now cannot take its own course.
He alleged that the opposition leaders are not getting released as the arm of the administration is now bigger than the law.
”We would like to make it clear that the government won’t be benefited by trying to brand the opposition leaders criminals through implicating them in false cases. It’s a bad move and detrimental to politics and all political parties,” Ripon observed.
Source: UNB
