Kissan Board Pakistan (KBP) has urged the government to order the immediate start of cane crushing season besides ensuring procurement of sugarcane at the government announced a rate of Rs 190 per maund.

The Board warned that it would give a wheel-jam strike call to growers throughout the country if demands of the farmers are not met with immediate effect. KBP President Chaudhry Nisar Ahmad raised this demand at an emergent meeting of the Board here on Friday. The meeting was also attended by the KBP Secretary General Chaudhry Shaukat Chaddhar, Haji Muhammad Ramzan and others.

Chaudhry Nisar Ahmad said that the sugar millers had shown an exemplary unity in stopping the crushing season and looting the farmers. The government has failed in protecting the interest of the cane growers. Delay in the recovery of past dues and the start of the fresh crushing season will render growers unable to sow wheat on thousands of acres of land.

KBP Chief urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan to constitute a commission for accountability of subsidy given to the sugar millers and their loot. He said both the federal and provincial governments were seemed helpless against sugar mills mafia as they wanted to buy sugarcane at the rate of their liking instead of buying it on government announced rates. He criticized the sugar millers saying they were delaying crushing season making a false claim of the deficit.

Chaudhry Nisar said that the KBP totally rejects the anti-Agri policies of the present government and if the government failed to put a stoppage to loot of sugar mills, then the board would give a wheel jam strike call.