October 11, 2005	Tuesday	Ramzan 6, 1426

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HYDERABAD, Oct 10: None of the sugar mills in Sindh have followed the decision of the Sindh Agriculture Department to start the crushing of sugarcane from October 1. A similar decision of the Sindh government had also been violated last year.

Crushing is delayed as the crop of sugarcane is yet not ready and the month of Ramazan has also started.

The government was fully aware of the fact and yet it announced an illogical and impracticable date to start crushing.

When a concerned government official was contacted on telephone, he said on the condition of anonymity that the notification was issued to remind the sugar mills to get ready to start the crushing season.

A meeting of the stakeholders is scheduled to be held at Karachi in a couple of days to take a final decision about starting the crushing season and fixing the minimum purchase price of sugarcane.

When contacted on telephone, the president of the Sindh Abadgar Board, Abdul Majeed Nizamani, agreed that the notification to start the crushing season from October 1 was totally wrong.

He said it was impossible to harvest the crop during Ramazan and the government should have known it. He was of the view that the crushing season could not start before November 20.

Mr Nizamani said that the mill owners had already announced that they would follow the prices fixed by Punjab plus Re1 extra on 40kg of sugarcane. He said that the minimum price should be fixed at Rs62 per 40kg.

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