01 February 2004	Sunday	09 Zilhaj 1424

NAWABSHAH, Jan 31: A meeting of sugarcane growers was held here on Friday under the banner of Sindh Abadgar Board to discuss problems of farmers. SAB district chairman Zain Shah presided over the meeting.

It was alleged that the Habib Sugar Mills management had not paid the last year's quality premium and arrears to growers.

They said the management was making deductions on some varieties and issuing 75 per cent indents to middle men and 25 per cent to growers.

Mr Shah criticized the Sindh government for not issuing the notification of quality premium and said mills had promised to release arrears before Jan 31 and if it failed growers would start a protest from Feb 2.

Resident director Habib Sugar Mills Mohammad Yousuf when contacted said the mill had started payment of arrears of Rs3 per maund and so far about 50 growers had been given payments.

He said indents were issued to growers according to survey and quantity. He said the cane commissioner had banned some varieties like disco as it was not so sweet and less in weight.

UPLIFT WORK: A meeting of the sugar cess committee was held under the chairmanship of district Nazim on Wednesday.

It was informed to the district Nazim Faryal Talpur that a survey of new schemes had been carried out by the field staff of works and services department.

Ten schemes of improvement and new construction in the Nawabshah taluka with cost of Rs22.68 million, 13 schemes in Sakrand taluka with cost of Rs20.43 million and 12 schemes in Doulatpur taluka with cost of Rs17.7 million were approved.