HYDERABAD: Amid reports of serious differences between two groups of sugar mill owners in lower Sindh, several of the mills have complained that their cane supplies are being blocked to cause disruption in production and ultimately losses to them. One of the affected parties claimed on Tuesday that police were being used by the rival side in the blockage.

A split among members of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) had surfaced a few weeks ago over the question of stopping the cane crushing process in view of, what was claimed to be, poor supplies from growers. In mid-December, the PSMA announced closure of all mills in Sindh and asked its members to stop the cane crushing process. Eventually, 17 of the total 35 mills reportedly followed the association’s decision but a few of them resumed the process in defiance. The others also had to resume cane crushing after Sindh Minister for Agriculture Sohail Anwar Siyal intervened on Dec 20 and persuaded the PSMA to reverse its decision.

On Tuesday, the management of the Digri Sugar Mills, Mirpurkhas, complained that the Badin police blocked its cane supplies while the consignments were on their way to the mills on the night between Monday and Tuesday. The mill was among those which had defied the PSMA decision.

According to the Digri mill’s management, at least 71 sugar cane laden vehicles were stopped by the police at a place between old and new Dumbalo town along the Mirpurkhas-Badin district border.

“This is main route of cane supplies from Thatta and Badin districts to our factory which remained under police surveillance. Police are not allowing the vehicles to reach our factory,” said a senior management officer of the mills while speaking to Dawn over phone on Tuesday.

Only a few days back, the mill was served a closure notice from the Sindh Environmental Prot­ection Agency (Sepa) and had to obtain a restraining order from the Sindh High Court, according to the management.

Sepa had also got the Serai Sugar Mills, Hyderabad district, closed on environmental degradation grounds but the Sindh High Court’s Hyder­abad circuit bench restrained the agency from taking any coercive measure against mill’s management.

An officer of the Digri mill present at the place where its consignments were stopped on Monday night, told this reporter over phone that the police were citing a “ban on inter-district cane movement” to justify their action of not allowing movement of the trucks. He said that police were not producing any such order, arguing that such a ban was usually enforced under Section 144 of the criminal procedure code.

“The vehicles are collectively carrying 35,000 maunds of sugar cane for our mill,” he said, adding that around 150 vehicles were hired to transport sugar cane to the mill. “Police had started blocking the supplies at 4pm on Monday and it continued till late in the night,” he said.

Growers, labourers worried

Growers and labourers are among the main stakeholders in the sugar industry as scores of growers and thousands of labourers earn their livelihood only when the mills are run according to schedule and a reasonable rate for sugar cane is offered and the crop is lifted on time by millers. Growers also have to clear their lands of sugar cane crop to cultivate the next crop.

Panicked by the disruption in the supply of their crop to the mills, growers’ leaders in Badin approached the area police to get the trucks released.

Sindh Abadgar Ittehad (SAI) president Nawab Zubair Talpur said: “Our organisation’s Tando Allahyar leaders had a heated argument with the Badin SHO at Budho Qambrani over detention of the vehicles.” He said that consignments of other crops also remained stuck due to police action.

He quoted SAI leader Sajid Memon, who led the team that negotiated with the police, as saying that they [the police] told the team that the vehicles were stopped merely for checking documents. “It was just a pretext,” said Mr Talpur, who alleged that the motive behind the police action was to stop cane supplies to the mill. Several sugar mills also regard the action being taken against them as victimisation.

Hyderabad region Sepa authorities issued a notice to the Serai Sugar Mills and ordered it to stop production on the grounds that mills had not installed a wastewater treatment plant and that they did not meet the required standards.

Sepa’s Hyderabad region officer Munir Abbasi on Tuesday said that notices were also issued to other mills in his region but four of them including the Serai Sugar Mills (Hyderabad), Digri Sugar Mills (Mirpurkhas district) and Abdullah Shah Ghazi Sugar Mills (Thatta) moved the high court and sought restraining orders. He said that the Habib Sugar Mills, Faran Sugar Mills and Mehran Sugar Mills had started taking corrective measures in response to the Sepa notices.

“The closure notice was issued to the Digri Sugar Mills after its management did not comply with the final notice issued to it during the current crushing season,” he said.

Growers’ leaders said that the Digri Sugar Mills management had actually resumed cane crushing on Dec 18 ie two days before an understanding to this effect was reached.

Representatives of the Sindh Abadgar Board, Sindh Chamber of Agriculture and Sindh Abadgar Ittehad approached Agriculture Minister Mr Siyal, who convened a meeting on Dec 20. The meeting persuaded the PSMA to ask the 17 sugar mills to resume cane crushing on Dec 21.

Police version

Badin SSP Abdul Qayyum Pitafi on Tuesday said that police had stopped vehicles only to check their documents amid a security alert on account of the Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto programme which was being held on the day to observe the 9th death anniversary of slain prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

He noted that many sugar mills had complained that their consignments were stopped. He denied that the police action was aimed at disrupting cane supplies.

He also rejected reports that some officers of the Digri Sugar Mills were booked.

Published in Dawn December 28th, 2016