HYDERABAD, Dec 2: The Pakistan Sugar Mills Owners Association has announced the closure of all sugar mills in Sindh from Friday (today).

Sources told Dawn that out of six sugar mills in Badin district, five mills - Khoski, Pangrio, Mirza, Talhar and Army Welfare Sugar Mills - had already suspended crushing.

The Ansari sugar mill is still functional. All sugar mills have stopped issuing fresh indents. Najma and Al-Abbas Sugar mills in Mirpurkhas are still operational. The PSMA claimed that mills were running into huge losses due to unavailability of sugarcane.

Sindh Cane Commissioner Nazar Mohammad Baloch said that mill owners had no justification to suspend crushing in upper Sindh as they had been receiving full supply of cane. He said he had already issued notices to mills not to suspend crushing failing which a legal action would be taken against them under the Sugar Factories Control Act 1950.

PSMA Sindh chairman Abdul Wajid Arain said that sugar mills were not happy to suspend the crushing process but they had been left with no other options due to "no cane" situation.

He argued that though there was an acute shortage of cane supply yet the mills remained operational for 28 days. "We have suffered losses not in millions but in tens of millions due to "no cane situation", Arain claimed.

He said the mill owners had been constrained to suspend the crushing with heavy heart. The chairman of the Sugarcane Growers Association, MNA Qurban Ali Shah said that mill owners were trying to blackmail as they were not prepared to pay the support price announced by the government.

He said that the mill owners had earned no less than Rs12 billion in the 1999-2000 crushing season. He said the mill owners could earn windfall profits through the sale of molasses in the international market.

Mr Shah claimed that the prices of molasses in the international market had increased by 200 per cent and added that the entire quantity of molasses was exported. Meanwhile, the Hyderabad district council has demanded that Sindh chief minister should take action against those mill owners who had announced closure of their factories for 15-days.

A resolution to this effect was tabled in the council by Rana Mehmood Ali, urging the government to take immediate action mill owners. He said it was violation of the Sindh government's decision and added that in fact the owners wanted to purchase cane on much lesser rates, fixed by the government.

ADDS OUR BADIN CORRESPONDENT: Sugarcane growers of the district have criticized mill owners for suspending sugarcane crushing, causing them huge financial losses.

Speaking at a press conference here on Thursday, Abadgars Welfare Association president Syed Zafar Ali Shah, Sindh Abadgar Board senior vice-president Mir Maula Bux Talpur, Chamber of Agriculture's Shah Mohammad Shah and other representatives of growers said after intervention of the Sindh government, they were supplying sugarcane to mills unconditionally and regularly.

They said the supply of sugarcane was low at the initial stage but it had improved after harvest of paddy crop and the mills in the district were now receiving more than 250,000 maunds of sugarcane daily. However, they regretted, despite this the mills were again suspending sugarcane crushing.