Order on Brazilian wheat stayed

The Supreme Court (SC) Chamber Judge has stayed till July 26 the High Court order that directed the government to take back the Brazilian wheat if anyone who received it wants to return it. Chamber Judge Hasan Foyej Siddique passed the order following a petition of prosecution on Thursday. Sources at the Supreme Court said a full bench of the top court, led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, will hear the petition in this regard later on Thursday. On July 8, the High Court directed the government to take back Brazilian wheat from any department, organisation or anyone if they wanted to return the same considering it not fit for human concumption. The government insists that the wheat purchased for Tk 4 billion from Brazil is ‘consumable for human’. The Brazilian wheat has already been supplied to police, BGB, Ansar units and to various dealers and mills. It has also been provided for Test relief and Foor-for-Work programmes. The High Court ruled that the government should take back the Brazilian wheat if anyone who received it wants to return it. The issue of Brazilian wheat also came up for discussion during the budget session of the 10th Jatiya Sangsad on Wednesday. Food Minister Advocate Qamrul Islam faced flack in the parliament even from his own party’s MPs. The debate over the issue stirred an uproad at the fag end of the 6th session and at one stage some ruling party and opposition lawmakers  dubbed the issue as ‘wheat scandal’, according to a news agency.