The supply of sugarcane to the mills in different parts of the province has been suspended as the millers, according to growers, are not paying the minimum price of the commodity fixed by the Sindh government. According to sources in Sindh Abadgar Board, the growers of district Badin and Thatta have stopped the supply of the commodity as the mills are reluctant to pay the minimum fixed price of the commodity, ie, Rs 102 per 40-kg for the crushing season 2009-10.
The sources said that the mills where the supply of sugar cane was stopped include Army Sugar Mill Khoski, Pingrio Sugar Mill, Mirza Sugar Mill and Ansari Sugar Mill. At the start of the ongoing crushing season, the sugar mills were purchasing the cane from the growers at high rates of Rs 180 to Rs 190, but many mills had reduced the amount and were now purchasing the commodity at Rs 80 to Rs 90 per 40 kilogram depriving poor growers of their rights, they added.
The poor growers are worried about their standing crop spread over thousands of acres land as they do not want to sell their produce at lower rates, which would bring losses of millions of rupees to them, they opined. They said that the sugar factories of province were also showing reluctance to pay quality premium to the cane growers violating the Sindh government's directives to the influential millers for the crushing season of 2007-8 at the rate of fifty paisa per 40 kilogram.
Sources said now the growers had decided not to sell the cane crop to the mills and would manufacture Gurr at their own instead of bowing before the millers. The sugar mills were selling the commodity at Rs 50 to Rs 60 to the people of the province while they were depriving the growers of the actual rate, which was fixed by the government, they added.
The mills in Sindh have yet to clear outstanding dues of the poor growers that reached Rs 12 billion despite intervention of the Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and other senior government authorities, they said. They added that the millers were using delaying tactics to avoid payment of the huge amount to the growers. They have demanded of the Supreme Court of Pakistan to intervene into the matter and ensure provision of justice to the poverty-stricken growers of Sindh.