NAWABSHAH, Nov 2: The sugarcane growers have expressed their anger over the delay of crushing season by mills of Nawabshah district which have failed to issue the indent to growers.

All the three mills, Habib, Sakrand and Al-Noor Sugar Mills had ignited their boilers in October and were supposed to start the crushing from Nov 1.

Syed Zahid Hussain Shah, general secretary of Sindh Abadgar Board, Nawabshah chapter, told Dawn that the growers were in trouble due to the intentional delay in the crushing by the mill owners.

He further said that the cane has started drying and the growers would suffer losses if the mills failed to start the operation immediately.

The time for sowing wheat crop was passing rapidly but they had no money for it, he said.

He said that the mills managers had told him that the mills would start crushing the in third week of November.

He termed the delay as a conspiracy against the cane growers and urged the authorities concerned to take action against the owners who have delayed the crushing despite instructions from the government.

MNA Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah, a can grower of Sakrand, said that the mill owners were sitting on top positions in the government and a mafia was involved in the crisis which had no concern with the problems of growers.

He criticised the government saying that only a real democratic government could resolve the problems of growers.

He said that the rates were also dictated to the government by the owners and no sugarcane grower forum was involved in the process.

Another cane grower MPA Ghulam Qadir Chandio held Sindh government responsible for the crisis. He said that this was the 3rd continuous year where the government has failed to implement its decisions on mills owners.

He said that the delay would not only reduce the weight of cane which would give loss to growers and the time for sowing other crops would also pass.

He said that the prices of fuel, fertilisers and other products were increasing while the government was least concerned about the problems of growers.

President Sindh Small Growers Association Nawabshah, Hakim Ali Khaskheli, said that the mills should be started without any delay and the Sindh government should implement the Sugarcane Factories Act.

He said the Sindh government had failed to implement their announcement for the crushing season due to which the growers were disturbed.

He alleged that the mills wanted to purchase cane through brokers on a lower rate and government should take action against the mills owners for this.

The mills’ officials had earlier told reporters that they would be issuing indents to growers in last week of October but no indent has issued.

When contacted, no official of the sugar mills was available for comments. However, the operator of all the mills informed that the crushing has not yet started.

Our Khairpur Correspondent adds: The two sugar mills in district Khairpur failed to start crushing from Nov 1, after they have ignited boilers.

The Khairpur and Ranipur sugar mills could not started crushing on Friday.

Khairpur Abadgar Ittehad President Shakir Shah and former president Chamber of Agriculture district Khairpur Ghulam Qasim Jiskani told reporters that the mills were to start the crushing from Oct 1, even late for one month they could not start the cane crushing from Nov 1, and there seemed to be no possibility of starting the crushing in near future.

They added that due to this delay wheat sowing in Khairpur and other districts of northern Sindh would be late and would affect wheat production.

They said that the sowing of early variety of wheat starts from Nov 1, which gives 100 per cent wheat production but it would be practically delayed now.

They said that if crushing of sugarcane was started in October, it would had made the sowing of wheat possible in November.

They said that cotton production sustained 50 per cent losses this year due to viral attack which had already affected the rural economy.

The mills’ administrations were not available for comments.

SALU: The teachers of Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur, led by Professor Abdul Majeed Chandio, staged demonstration on Friday against attack on Professor Ameer Ahmed Pathan of department of statistics of SALU.

They said that Professor Pathan was attacked near Gambat two days ago.

They said that it was a matter of concern that police constables manhandled the teacher, but the police, instead of arresting them, extending undue favour to them.