MUZAFFARGARH: The police have registered a case against the chief accountant of (Hajra Rehman) Tandlianwala sugar mills for delaying payments to sugarcane farmers.

The case has been instituted also against the deputy cane manager under sections 506, 471 and 468 of the PPC.

District Coordination Officer Hafiz Shaukat Ali said that on the complaints of farmers, he had sent Assistant Commissioner Haider Abbas Wattoo to the Tandlianwala Sugar Mills and he found middlemen bargaining with farmers. When he investigated the middlemen, they claimed that they were partners of chief accountant Younis Javed and deputy cane manager Ijaz Bajwa.

The farmers alleged that the mills officials forced them to sell their sugarcane to middlemen on net payment outside the mills on the pretext that they (mills) had no cash to pay lump sum amount to them.

AC Haider Abbas sent for the police and submitted an application for registration of a case.

The police arrested some middlemen while the chief accountant and deputy cane manager made good their escape.

Scores of farmers visited the DCO office for complaints about the attitude of mills officials and inordinate delay in payment. Some farmers claimed that when they approached District Officer Labour Tahir Gurchani, he claimed credit for getting a case registered against the mills officials.

The AC told the farmers that he had asked the mills to make payments to the sugarcane producers within weeks. Chowk Qureshi SHO Safdar Mirza said the accused had taken pre-arrest bail.

Zubair Ahmad of Shah Jamal said he had sugarcane over five acres and he took the product to the mills in December but was yet to get Rs223,000 the buyer owed to him.

He said his younger brother’s marriage had been postponed because of shortage of money.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2015

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