HYDERABAD, Jan 20: The joint action committee of the sugarcane growers of Sindh has decided to stage a protest march on Jan 21 against the refusal of sugar mill owners to pay government-fixed price for sugarcane.

The decision to stage the protest was taken during an emergency meeting of the action committee held here on Sunday.

The protesters, the meeting decided, would march from Wadhu Wah Chowk to the Hyderabad Toll Plaza on the Superhighway.

Terming the mill owners’ acts criminal, the meeting criticized the decision of sugar mill owners to approach the Sindh High Court, saying that by doing so they had challenged the authority of the government.

Expressing fears regarding creation of law and order situation, the meeting said that the sugar mill owners’ decision to approach the learned court would jeopardize the agriculture sector of the province besides rendering tens of thousands of sugar mill workers jobless.

The growers’ meeting also expressed fear about a shortage of sugar output, which, they said, could compel the government to import the commodity, thereby bloating its import bill.

Participants of the meeting described the decision to stage protest in accordance with the decisions taken during the growers’ meeting held on Jan 13.

The peaceful protest, the meeting said, was aimed at restoring the government’s authority and save the workers associated with the sugar industry and the agriculture sector from the spectre of starvation.

Welcoming the government’s decision to export sugar besides purchasing the surplus stock from sugar mills, they said that the government should purchase the commodity from only those mills who had obeyed the government’s directives.

The meeting was attended by the president of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, Syed Qamaruzzaman Shah, the president of the Sindh Abadgar Board, Abdul Majeed Nizamani and the secretary general of the Sugarcane Growers’ Association, MNA Syed Qurban Ali Shah.