HYDERABAD, Nov 30: All sugar mills in Sindh have been warned in an official letter issued by the Sindh cane commissioner that they cannot close their mills without Sindh government's approval and, if they did so, it will be considered an offence under the Sugar Factories Control Act 1950.

The cane commissioner has communicated letters separately to all mills in Sindh and the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (Sindh zone), calling upon them not to close mills. It has been argued in the letter that the PSMA is considering closure of mills due to an inadequate supply of sugarcane to mills.

The cane commissioner said that Habib, AL-Noor, Matiari, Sakrand, Khairpur, Mehran, Mirpurkhas and Sanghar sugar mills were crushing around 80,000 to 130,000 maunds of sugarcane which was beyond their expectation as the sugarcane cultivation had decreased.

He claimed that Mirpurkhas, Al-Abbas, Sindh, Abadgar and Faran sugar mills were also crushing normal quantity of sugarcane but their exact crushing figure could not be quoted. He referred to sugar mills of Thatta and Badin district where crushing had been affected due to significant decrease in sugarcane cultivation. He said that there was no justification of unilateral closure of mills.

He said if mill owners took arbitrary decision, growers would suffer heavy losses which would not only reduce sugarcane cultivation during the next season but also lead to confidence crisis.

He said that any such closure would warrant action under section 21 of the SCFA. He said it was prerogative of the government to announce opening and closing of the crushing season.