THROUGH your columns, I would like to draw the attention of the chief justice of Pakistan, who is our only hope to this fiasco.

The price of the cane price receipt (CPR) of sugar cane is on paper still being shown as Rs180 per maund, but the sugar cane grower is being paid Rs159. In some cases the growers, through ruthless brokers, are only being paid Rs150 as this is being paid in cash, and the poverty-stricken farmers have to pay labour, and other expenses.

Some of these brokers paying cash are the commissioning agents of the sugar mills.

Another scam being perpetrated by the sugar mills is the kutothi where on each maund, weight is decreased by some percentage by the mill, no questions asked.

Recently, in Muzaffargarh district, the DCO visited one of the mills and some sugar cane farmers raised the issue of the price. Nothing much happened, but the farmers were barred from that sugar mill.

Please give us justice. We are poor, fighting a losing battle against mill owners who have the system under their control; we have nowhere to go.

Qaisar Nawaz
Islamabad

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THE low sugar cane price has devastated the farmers’ whose families depend on sugar cane crop. The government must fix the sugar cane price at Rs182 per kg like the previous year.

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has already ordered the payment of reasonable rates to sugar cane farmers. But the defiant sugar mills do not seem ready to pay attention to the farmers’ plight.

Sugar mills are also reluctant to pay on time, as farmers’ last payments have not been made so far.

The SHC chief justice is requested to take quick action against the sugar cane mill owners.

Imran Khan
Hyderabad

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2018