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HYDERABAD, Dec 18: National People’s Party chief Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi has criticized what he called monopoly of sugar mill owners in Sindh, causing monetary losses to growers. He was talking to journalists at the wedding ceremony of a daughter of the director general, Sindh health services, Dr Hadi Bux Jatoi, at the Niaz Stadium on Saturday night.
He said though there was less production of sugarcane in Punjab as compared to Sindh but mill owners were purchasing cane at Rs70 per 40 kilograms. However, he regretted, growers in Sindh were being offered Rs45 to Rs46 per 40kgs of cane.
He said the growers of Sindh should be paid reasonable prices for their produce.
He wondered why mills owners purchased cane at higher rates from Punjab when they had also to bear additional transportation expenses.
He demanded that the government should ensure that growers got fair price for their cane produce.
PPP MNA: People’s Party Parliamentarian MNA Nawab Abdul Ghani Talpur said on Sunday that growers of Tando Mohammad Khan would run the Faran Sugar Mills on Dec 23 if mill owners did not call off their strike.
Talking to journalists at his residence, he said when sugar was sold at Rs18 per kilogram, sugarcane price had been fixed at Rs43 per 40kgs and now when sugar was being sold at Rs30 per kilogram, mill owners were offering Rs48 per 40kgs of cane to growers.
Demanding to fix cane rate at Rs70 per 40kgs, he said growers wanted to supply sugarcane to mills because they had to sow wheat.
He claimed that of 28 mills in the province, 26 were lying closed due to weakness of the Sindh government.
Mr Talpur said growers would run the Faran mills on Dec 23 and the Tando Mohammad Khan district nazim had been consulted in this regard.
He said growers were willing to supply cane at the rate of Rs60 per 40kgs fixed by the Sindh government. He said the government should implement its decision.
