LARKANA, Jan 25: Owing to different problems, regarding power supply by Wapda, the rice millers in Sindh are opting for running their factories through diesel generators.

This was said by the patron-in-chief of the Sindh Balochistan Rice Millers and Traders Association (SRMTA), Gada Hussain Mahesar, while talking to this correspondent on Saturday.

Deteriorating law and order situation and different problems, related with power supply, had tremendously affected rice industry in Sindh and Balochistan, he said.

He said that low voltage of electricity, unscheduled load- shedding, power tripping, detection and inflated bills and the penalties had cast a negative impact on the industry.

The 750 rice mills annually paid around Rs75 million to Wapda, but due to variety of reasons, power supply to the mills had remained unsatisfactory, he deplored.

The situation was forcing the millers to run their mills on diesel generators.

According to a rough calculation, Mahesar said, Wapda had lost Rs20 million annual revenue after 200 mills had been switched over to generators in Sindh and Balochistan provinces.

Expenses incurred on power through generators was assessed as 30 per cent less than those on power supply by Wapda, he said.

The other major problem, confronting the rice mills, was deteriorating law and order situation, he pointed out.

He said that rice millers and traders were being kidnapped and killed and rocket attacks were being launched on rice mills in Jacobabad district.

He said that the most affected areas were Kandhkot, Tangwani, Thul and Kashmor in Jacobabad district, Nasirabad, Warah and Ratodero in Larkana district and Madeji in Shikarpur district.

In 2002, Mahesar said, seven millers were kidnapped, four murdered and two were still in the captivity of bandits.

The poor performance of the police had escalated the incidents, he said.

The situation was also badly affecting thousands of labourers, working at the rice mills, he said.

The SBRMTA leader demanded of the Sindh government to focus on improving law and order situation and announce incentives in power supply to save what he called the dying industry.