GUJRANWALA: Sugarcane growers of Gujranwala and Hafizabad districts protested on Tuesday against the low prices of their yield being offered by mill owners.

They threatened to stage a sit-in outside the Punjab Assembly and the chief minister’s office if their demands are not accepted.

Kissan Bachao Tehreek leaders Chaudhry Adil Manj, Chaudhry Bashir Cheema, Rifaq Ali and Noor Husain said the government had fixed the cane price at Rs180 per 40kg but sugar mills were offering them Rs150.

They said the prices offered by the mills hardly met the expenditures of the cane crop whereas transporting the cane loads from the farm to the mill added to burden on them.

They alleged the mills issued the farmers plain paper receipts instead of printed receipts and also delayed payments. They said they would not grow cane next year if they were not paid the actual price.

DIE: Three labourers working at an under-construction house on Naushera Road died on Tuesday.

They were trapped under the debris of the roof late on Monday. Rescue 1122 retrieved the injured and shifted them to the Gujranwala District Headquarters Hospital where Rashid died soon after the arrival due to his serious head injuries. Two more injured people, Bashir and Rifaqat Ali, died on Tuesday.

The bodies of deceased were handed over to their heirs.

Police were looking into matter.

PROTEST: Labour unions protested on Tuesday against the Social Welfare Department for not compensating a labourer whose both hands were chopped while working in an oil factory a few days ago. They said the factory owner had already submitted the compensation money with the department which the labourer had yet to receive.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2017