HYDERABAD: Growers of Sindh have called off the protest they had scheduled for Dec 23 (Saturday) against government’s failure to implement its notification fixing the sugar cane procurement price at Rs182 per 40kg for the season 2017-18.

The decision to call off the protest was announced by the joint sugar cane action committee, having representation of various organisations of growers, in the office of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) on Friday evening.

The committee held its emergency session earlier in the day after the Sindh High Court in Karachi passed an order in favour of the growers’ organisations that had moved court over the matter.

The emergency session was attended by SCA president Kabool Mohammad Khatiyan and general secretary Zahid Bhurgari; Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) president Abdul Majeed Nizamani and senior vice president Mehmood Nawaz Shah; Sindh Abadgar Ittehad (SAI) president Nawab Zubair Talpur and other leaders.

Kabool Khatian told reporters here after the session that the SHC allowed sugar millers to procure the cane crop at the rate of Rs172/40kg but ordered them to deposit Rs10/40kg with the court Nazir as security. He said that growers would become party to this case and the three organisations of growers would engage their separate counsel to plead the case in court.

Majeed Nizamani and Nawab Talpur, stating that growers respected the court order, announced that the protest planned for Saturday (today) was being called off.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2017