HYDERABAD: The Sindh Abadgar Ittehad (SAI) said on Sunday that unnecessary delay by Sindh government in announcing sugar cane’s indicative price for 2024-25 season, despite commencement of cane crushing, was causing enormous financial losses to cane farmers.

The Ittehad leaders who met here with SAI president Nawab Zubair Talpur in the chair accused the Sindh government of showing carelessness in the issuing the notification.

The meeting said that millers were taking advantage of the delay in the issuance of notification and causing enormous losses to farmers. The cane’s crushing was under way for last one month but the official price notification had not been issued yet, the meeting regretted.

It said that as per Sugarcane Factories Control Act, the notification was to be issued along with commencement of crushing season but it was not done with the result that sugar millers were reaping benefits of the delay by paying less to growers.

The meeting observed that the farmers were bearing economic losses in the absence of notified rate and demanded that Rs450 per 40kg sugar cane price should be fixed by the government. It was the same rate which was being offered to farmers in the neighbouring country for sugar cane crop this year, it said.

It deplored that millers made deductions from their cane on the pretext of different ‘varieties’ of sugar cane which was a great injustice with growers. The cane price should be officially fixed as soon as possible, it said.

It said that SAI had already moved Sindh High Court on this issue on behalf of farmers and its case would be heard on Dec 17.

The meeting expressed concern over construction of six canals over Indus River and said that now voices were being raised even in Punjab against these canals.

It called for immediately shelving such anti-Pakistan plan and made it clear that people of Sindh would never accept robbery on Indus river flows considering the fact that being lower riparian Sindh was always faced with water shortage issue. With the construction of these canals the lands in Sindh would become barren, the meeting warned.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2024