HYDERABAD, Nov 1: The Sindh Abadgar Board has criticized sugar mill owners for not starting the crushing season on time and denying growers the government-fixed price for sugarcane.

The working committee of the SAB that met here on Saturday said the mill owners had violated notifications of federal and Sindh governments and orders of the prime minister in respect of starting the crushing season.

It observed that due to the delay in the crushing season the country was suffering a loss of 300,000 maunds of wheat and thousands of maunds of sugarcane per day.

It said sugar mills had usurped Rs932,359,639 by paying three rupees less than the fixed sugarcane price, Rs1,071,650,591 by not paying quality premium and Rs137,747,464 in respect of surcharge. In this way, the mill owners were withholding the payment of Rs2,141,757,693 to growers, it added.

The SAB demanded that the president and federal and Sindh governments should direct sugar mills to clear the dues before Eidul Fitr and ensure that the mills started the crushing season without any further delay to save millions of maunds of sugarcane.

It further demanded that due to shortage of water and blackmailing of the mill owners, the government should permit installation of six sugar-beat mills in Sindh.

The meeting said the government should ensure the payment of support price of sugarcane at the rate of Rs43 per 40 kilograms and quality premium at the rate of 50 paisas per 40 kgs.

It also called upon the government to take necessary steps with a view to reducing the cost of production of sugar.

The meeting expressed concern over the shortage of water at tail-end areas of watercourses in the Sukkur Barrage area, water rotation programme and frequent breaches in water channels. It observed that this situation was continuing notwithstanding the fact that the overall water availability was satisfactory.

It demanded that the rotation programme should be stopped forthwith and full water supply be restored.

It further demanded that an inquiry should be initiated to ascertain the cause of breaches and compensation be paid to affected people.