HYDERABAD, Dec 21: Growers of Tando Mohammad Khan have decided to take over sugar mills in the district from Dec 24 to start crushing sugarcane following a decision by the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association, Sindh chapter, to close the units due to a row over cane price.

This was announced by Pir Asadullah Jan Sarhandi, senior office-bearer of the Sindh Abadgar Board and the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, at a news conference on Tuesday.

He said Tando Mohammad Khan was the centre of sugar industry as 25 per cent of sugarcane crop of the province was cultivated in the district.

He said this year mill owners delayed crushing by three months which had affected 70 per cent of the crop.

He said sugar mills had crushed tens of thousands of maunds of sugarcane during the current month but owners closed their mills after the Sindh government fixed the minimum price of sugarcane at Rs60 per 40 kilograms.

Mr Sarhandi said growers were not only suffering huge losses due to closure of sugar mills but they were also not able to cultivate wheat and paddy crops.

He said more than 1,000 growers had held a meeting and decided to operate sugar mills in the district themselves from Dec 24 in collaboration with mill workers and trade unions. He said growers would be paid Rs60 per 40kgs for their produce as announced by the government.

He appealed to the government to take legal action against mill owners and help growers in operating the mills.

There are five sugar mills in Tando Mohammad Khan.

GSTA: Office-bearers of the Government Secondary Teachers Association, Jamshoro, have accused central association president Abdul Ghani Kumbhar, central election committee chairman Bashir Hussain Korai and taluka election committee chairman of violating the association’s constitution and nepotism in holding elections of three talukas of the district.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Wednesday, district association president Altaf Hussain Dawach, senior vice-president Abdul Majeed Memon, junior vice-president Mohammad Ayoub Mallah and other office-bearers said the central president of the association and the election committee had terminated membership of many teachers illegally.

They said the election committee had committed malpractice in the elections.

Rejecting decisions of the election committee and the central president, they announced a separate body for the Jamshoro district with Altaf Hussain Dawach as the president and Mohammad Saleh Memon as the general secretary.

They appealed to affected teachers to cooperate with the new body of the Jamshoro GSTA.