Sofia Ismail, Chairperson, Ismail Welfare Trust, a non-governmental organisation working for welfare of common people, has condemned sugar millers demand to increase the wholesale price of sugar to Rs 31 per kg and asked the government to take note of this situation.
Sugar millers' demand that the government should purchase 0.5 million tonnes sugar from them at the rate of Rs 31 per kg, otherwise the sugar industry will plunge into severe crisis, is incorrect and uncalled for, she said in a statement here on Sunday.
She said that the sugar millers were exerting pressure on the government to increase the price of this essential item, but it should resist it. She said that sugar millers were also not making timely payment of the cane growers', which was causing disappointment among the farming community. If the government did not take action against the excesses of the sugar millers, the growers will abandon cultivation of sugarcane, she feared.