HYDERABAD, April 5 The Sindh Abadgar Board has opposed a proposal for setting up seven new sugar mills and urged the government not to issue no-objection certificate for new mills till 2025.

The board, which met here on Saturday under Abdul Majeed Nizamani, said that the 84 sugar mills already in the country were working at a capacity of only 72 per cent.

Under the circumstances, there was no need of more sugar mills, especially when the existing mills had failed to clear Rs12 billion they owed to growers on account of quality premium, the meeting said.

Besides, the meeting said, the government would lose other precious crops if new sugar mills were installed and irrigation system would also have serious impacts because sugarcane was a high delta crop.

The meeting expressed concern over ban on movement of wheat under section 144, Sindh government`s helplessness before PASSCO, delay in payment of dues to growers by sugar mills, violation of water accord, alleged injustices by Irsa in distribution of water and deteriorating law and order situation.

The meeting said that growers against heavy odds including acute shortage of water and fertilisers gave a positive response to the government`s “Grow More Wheat” campaign and cultivated wheat on more area than the given targets.

The meeting demanded that section 144 should be lifted on the movement of wheat throughout the country and claimed that to ban the movement of edibles within an area was a flagrant violation of the Constitution as it affected not only the producer but also the consumer specially in the areas where there was shortage of wheat and other edibles.

The meeting argued that the growers had decided to sell 100 per cent produce to the government at the rate of Rs950 per 40 kg, therefore, there was no rationale to ban the movement of wheat.

The meeting said that the word smuggling was being wrongly used because many cities of Sindh were divided into different districts and if wheat was transported to these cities, it could not be described as smuggling.

The meeting accused Passco of inefficiency and breach of promise and pointed out that due to rains and Passco`s inefficiency, paddy crop was damaged to the extent of 70 per cent.

The meeting regretted that the government failed to carry out survey of total losses and urged the Sindh chief minister to fulfil his promise to purchase the damaged paddy at the rate of Rs600 per maund and waive off recovery of taxes on Kharif and Rabi crops for the year 2008-09 as well as bank loans.

The meeting demanded that certified paddy seed should be provided free of cost for the coming Kharif crop and a hari package should be announced and implemented.

The meeting called upon the government to review agriculture policy and reduce imports and increase exports of agricultural commodities.

The meeting demanded that the water accord 1991 should be implemented in letter and spirit and Irsa should not overstep its constitutional mandate.

The meeting said that the right of tail-end growers should be protected and no direct outlet should be sanctioned and proposed that the cultivation of high delta crop should be discouraged and crop zoning system should be put in place.

The lawlessness in Sindh, the meeting observed, had attained alarming proportions, forcing 80 per cent of population in many rural areas to live below poverty line.

The government had no legal or moral right to recover taxes without restoring law and order in the country, especially Sindh, the meeting observed.

SCA The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture at a meeting held here on Sunday urged the government to set up processing plants for fruits and vegetables in different districts of the province.