December 27, 2002	Friday	Shawwal 22, 1423

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NAWABSHAH, Dec 26: The three sugar mills of Nawabshah — the Habib Sugar Mills, Sakrand Sugar Mills and the Al-Noor Sugar Mills — are not offering the price of sugarcane fixed by the government.

This was stated by Syed Zahid Hussain Shah, the district general secretary, Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB), while welcoming growers at a meeting, held by the board at the residence of Syed Imdad Mohammad Shah here on Thursday.

Speaking on the occasion, Syed Bashir Ahmad Shah, who was the chief guest on the occasion, said if sugar mills continued this attitude, growers would stop cultivating sugarcane.

He announced he would cut the cultivation of sugarcane up to 50 per cent from next year and also appealed to growers to cut the cultivation.

The growers warned if their demands were not fulfilled till Dec 31, the supply of sugarcane to mills would be stopped for five days as an initial step.

Three committees were constituted for Daulatpur, Sakrand and Nawabshah talukas to stop the supply of sugarcane to mills.

District SAB president Syed Zain Shah presided over the meeting.

Later, the growers marched up to the Nawabshah Press Club.

They unloaded a trolley, carrying about 200 maunds of sugarcane, opposite the press club and set the sugarcane ablaze as a mark of protest.

The fire brigade reached the spot and extinguished the fire.

Adds our Hyderabad Bureau: The government of Sindh has fixed the minimum price of sugarcane at the rate of Rs43 per 40 kg for the crushing season 2002-2003.

In a notification issued here on Tuesday, the secretary, agriculture, Sindh, directed the managements of sugar mills to pay quality premium to sugarcane growers at the end of the crushing season 2002-2003 at the rate of 50 paisa per 40 kg for each 0.1 per cent of excess sucrose recovery, above 8.7 per cent sucrose recovery.