Naundero Sugar Mills (NSM) has been closed on the call of Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) after the Sindh High Court directed the mill owners to pay Rs 182 per 40 kg sugarcane, NSM Finance Manager Hamz Ali Chakrani told reporters on Thursday.
He said closure of mill information was passed on to the growers so that they may stop the cutting of the crop. “I am unaware of the date when the crushing will resume,” he said.
Due to closure of the mill, the growers have suffered millions of rupees losses as they said that they were not informed about the sudden closure of the mill. They refuted the claim of Finance Manager Chakrani.
Larkana Chamber of Agriculture President Syed Siraj Rashidi told PPI that a grand meeting of sugarcane growers of entire Sindh would be held in Nawabshah on January 10 where the matter would be discussed.
Rashdi said the arbitrary closure of mill amounts to destroying the tillers as they had invested a lot of money and labour in the cultivation of cash crop. He refuted the claim of Chakrani that growers were informed of the shutting up of the mill. Rashidi further said that the mill owners had refused to obey the orders of the Sindh High Court which was a contempt of court.
He said: “If mills do not resume their crushing then the growers will burn their crop and will never sow it in future.” He demanded of the government to force the mill owners to abide by the SHC decision and pay Rs 182 per 40 kg to the growers because of the fact that where ever sugarcane is sown no other crop can be sown in the same field for a year whereas in other crops they can sow two crops annually. He said: “Thousands of acres of sugarcane crop is still standing in the fields which if not lifted by the NSM will also force the land owners to destroy it and then not to grow it in future.”
