HYDERABAD, Nov 1: All sugar mills in Sindh, except four, started crushing cane on Monday but the production process was slow for lack of an adequate supply of sugarcane.

According to sources, the growers have been issued indents by the mills for the supply of cane.

Four mills - the Al-Asif, the Mirza, the Ranipur and the Khairpur - are expected to start crushing within the next few days.

Farm workers are busy in harvesting chillies and paddy crop. Therefore, the cutting of sugarcane is being delayed.

Another reason cited for an inadequate supply of sugarcane to the mills is that at many farms the crop has not properly matured due to delayed monsoon rains. However, the farmers said that since the sugar mills were avoiding paying the support price of Rs43 per maund as fixed by the government, the growers were withholding the cane supply.

The senior vice-president of the Sindh Abadgar Board, Umer Farooq, said it was due to uncertainty about the start of crushing season on time by the mills that an inadequate quantity of sugarcane was being supplied to the mills.

He said that the small growers simply could not afford to withhold supply for long.

The president of the Sugarcane Growers Association, Sindh, MNA Qurban Ali Shah, said that as usual the mill owners were using delaying tactics.

He said while the mill owners had fired their boilers to complete the legal formality, they were delaying the crushing by refusing to pay the support price of Rs43 per maund to the growers.

The MNA said except for a handful of mills, the others were offering only Rs41 per maund to the growers.

He said this was a flagrant violation of the government notification and added that the Sindh government must enforce its writ and ensure the payment of the support price.

How can the growers supply cane at Rs41 per maund against the support price of Rs43 per maund, the president of the association asked.

He said the mills were deriving huge profits as the sugar prices, when compared to the last year, had increased by Rs5 per kg.

Mr Shah said that in the international market, the prices of molasses had also increased by 200 per cent.

Under the circumstances, he said, the mill owners were not justified at all in offering only Rs41 per maund to the cane growers.

Sindh cane commissioner Nazar Mohammad Baloch said that a huge amount was outstanding against the Al-Noor sugar mills, Khairpur sugar mills, Ranipur sugar mills and Sakrand sugar mills in the shape of Rs3 per maund difference for the year 2002-03.

Mr Baloch said the sugar mills owed to the growers a sum of Rs1.071 billion for the year 2002-03 and Rs1.173 billion for the year 2003-04.

When asked why no action was being taken against the sugar mills for withholding the payments of growers, Mr Baloch said the superior judiciary had ordered the status quo in the matter.

BADIN: Of six sugar mills in the district, five have started crushing of sugarcane from Nov 1.

Only the Mirza Sugar Mills Kadhan could not start its crushing despite of all arrangements and firing of boilers.

The administrative manager of the mill, Mr Sajjad Khoso, said the main I.B fans of the machine had went out of order.

He said fans repair would take two to three days more.

He said that such information had been sent to the cane commissioner

The remaining five sugar mills including the Deewan Sugar Mill Khoski, Bawani Sugar Mills Talhar, Army Sugar Mills Badin, Pangrio Sugar Mills and Ansari Sugar Mills Matli have already issued indents and started crushing cane.

The general manager of the Deewan Sugar Mills, Mr Faisal Raza, said that more than 100 indents had been issued and 30 vehicles loaded with sugarcane were waiting for unloading.

He complained that Bahadur Wah, which supplied water to the mill, had been closed from Oct 23 and no reserve water was available causing serious trouble to the mill management.

He said that none of the irrigation officials was available to resolve the problem.

The Pangrio Sugar Mills management said though a large number of indents had been issued and the entire field staff had been busy in collecting sugarcane but unfortunately only five to six vehicles were supplying cane.

The Talhar sugar mills has received only five truck loads and the Ansari sugar mills Matli has received equal number of trucks.

The spokesman for the Army sugar mills Badin said that hardly it had received six vehicles of cane to start the crushing season.

Growers said the reason for less response was that labour had been engaged in harvesting, chillies and paddy crops, as the mills had delayed crushing.

One of the mills officials wondered why the Sindh chief minister had not supplied his cane to the mills while the mills of the area had started crushing.

He said that it would take sometime to bring the mills in full swing and added that the mills were sustaining huge losses.

KHAIRPUR: The Khairpur Sugar Mills and the Ranipur Sugar Mills administrations have claimed to have started sugarcane crushing on Monday but the district president of the Abadgar Ittehad, Mr Shakir Ali Shah, rejected this claim and said that crushing had not been started.

He told newsmen that despite continuously attempts to contact sugar mills administrations no responsible person was available.

Khairpur DCO Rizwan Memon said the management of the Khairpur Sugar Mills had assured him that crushing would start on Monday evening while the Ranipur sugar mills administration had informed him that they would start crushing in a day or two. The DCO claimed that the Ranipur Sugar Mills had also issued indent to the growers.