MIRPURKHAS: The Sindh government preferred to look the other way as sugar cane crisis caused by mills’ refusal to pay fair price to growers deepened with each passing day, said leader of a growers’ organisation here on Friday.

Farmer Organisations Council Sindh chairman Javed Ahmed Junejo said after chairing a joint meeting of FOC, Sindh Agriculture Research Council (SARC), Tail Abadgar Association, Sindh Abadgar Hari Ittehad and Sindh Abadgar Forum at his residence that the five organisations had decided to observe hunger strike outside the Karachi Press Club on Feb 18 to protest against the government’s failure to meet their demands.

He warned if their demands remained unmet even after the hunger strike they would be compelled to stage a sit-in outside the Chief Minister House.

Mr Junejo said that Sindh government had failed to force mills to buy cane at the price fixed by Sindh High Court. As a result, growers were forced to sell cane at only Rs130 per 40 kilogramme, incurring huge financial losses, he said.

He said that under a conspiracy against farm sector and growers, the Sindh government had completely ignored the deepening crisis of sugar cane.

The government had done nothing to ensure supply of water up till tail-end areas of canals and stop unscrupulous officials from selling water to influential landlords, he said.

He said that authorities concerned had not de-silted any canal and misappropriated the entire budget for de-silting. In addition, funds for lining of minors and distributaries had also been embezzled, he alleged.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2018