MUZAFFARGARH: Over 100 farmers met teh district coordination officer at his office on Tuesday and complained about delayed payments from the Hajra Rehman Tandlawala Sugar Mills in Muzaffargarh.

DCO Hafiz Shaukat Ali called mill officials to his office and ordered them to resolve the issue.

A mill official said they were short of cash and they had informed their senior management about the situation. The DCO warned the administration to arrange cash or strict action would be taken against them.

Labour District Officer Tahir Gurchani said his department would also take action if the mill did not arrange payments soon.

The farmers also complained to the DCO about a mill official who was buying cane through middlemen at Rs160 per 40 kilo instead of official price of Rs182.

They said initially the mill would pay the price of their produce after 10 days but now the payments had been delayed for two weeks.

The DCO said the farmers who had sold cane to the mill on or before Nov 28 would get their payment from the mill administration on Wednesday (today).

Farmers have also sought PML-N MPAs’ help and have managed their pressure on the district administration and the mill.

A farmer from Union Council Gulwala, Rasheed Ahmed, was part of the delegation. He said he sold his cane to the mill on Nov 28 and he had yet to receive the cash as he had to pay the tuition fee of his civil engineer student son. He said he was in such a desperate need of cash that he had offered an MPA a handsome commission if he helped him get payment from the mill.

SCHOOLS: More than three dozen schools in Muzaffargarh are without boundary walls creating security issues for the students.

After the attack on a school in Peshawar on Tuesday, the Punjab education secretary of schools instructed schools to make security arrangements. He ordered executive district officers (EDOs) to hire security guards to man school gates.

Education EDO Ishfaq Gujjar told Dawn all schools would observe a one-minute silence on Wednesday to mourn the death of Peshawar students.

The DCO said he had called the meetings of education officers and private academies owners to discuss security arrangements.

He said he had ordered all schools to hire security guards and that no student would be allowed to go out of the school during the recess.

He said the schools lacking boundary walls would have walls soon.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2014