May 20, 2008	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 14, 1429

HYDERABAD, May 19: The Sindh sugar mills owners should clear dues of cane growers immediately or else face protest demonstrations and sit-ins, warned acting Chairman, Sindh Taraqi Passand Party, Dr Abdul Hameed Memon. He condemned the callous attitude of millers toward poor cane growers.

In a statement faxed to Dawn, he said tens of millions of rupees of growers were outstanding against sugar mills as a result of which small growers and haris were starving and living in abject poverty.He said farming community was struggling for its survival and agriculture sector being destroyed due to acute water shortage and inordinate increase in the prices of fertilizer, seeds and pesticides.

He accused the government and bureaucracy of supporting few mill owners at the cost of 70 per cent of the population of Sindh. He also condemned the retrenchment of 246 workers of Faran Sugar Mills and demanded their reinstatement.