SIALKOT, Dec 13: Growers have threatened to besiege sugar mills if the support price fixed by the government was not paid to them.

In a press release issued here on Thursday, they alleged that millowners were fleecing growers and were paying between Rs30 and Rs32 instead of Rs42 per 40kg besides short measuring using defective weigh machines.

Sugarcane Growers Association president Syed Iqbal Shah said farmers would prefer to burn their produce rather than selling at low rates.

He said the mills managements had delayed payments to farmers, got 10 per cent excess sugarcane without payment, and denied the support price last year. But, this year farmers would not let them fleece their fellows. They would stage sit-ins, block highways and besiege sugar mills if they continued their exploitation, he added.

Meanwhile, the district administration has warned the millers to ensure payments to the growers and keep their weighing machine correct.

JAMAAT: Punjab Jamaat-i-Islami amir Hafiz Muhammad Idrees has asked the army to go back to barracks after establishing an interim government in the country.

Speaking at a Sialkot District Bar Association meeting here on Thursday, he said the military regime had failed to solve the problems of common man, thus it had no right to stay in power.

Later, talking to newsmen, Hafiz Idrees urged the UN to halt India from barbarism in occupied Kashmir.

BAITUL MAAL: The Pakistan Baitul Maal, Narowal district, has not yet issued third instalment to 12,000 deserving families under the food support programme.