FAISALABAD: A farmer has alleged that sugar mills have refused to buy his crop.

Faqeer Husain, also an activist of the Pakistan Agriculture and Dairy Farmers Association, said he feared huge losses as the mills have refused to buy his 65-acre sugarcane crop directly from him and instead asked him to contact a middleman.

He alleged the millers were buying crop at Rs120 to 150 though the government has fixed Rs180 per 40-kg price of the cane crop.

Naeem Ali, a farmer of Thekariwala, said millers were not issuing proper cane procurement receipts to farmers. A seller would get a simple piece of paper where the mill officials jots down the quantity of the sold crop.

He said this time again the farmers were facing financial losses as the millers had started crushing after about one month delay. Divisional President of the Pakistan Kissan Board Ali Ahmed said that the district administration seemed helpless before the millers.

He announced staging a protest demonstration if the district government did not ensure the payment of fixed price to farmers.

An official of the district administration told Dawn that they were focusing on the crushing activities and no miller would be allowed to exploit the farmers. He said they got registered cases against some middlemen for committing wrongdoings with the farmers.

He said strict action would be taken against the millers if the administration find any evidence of less payment to the farmers. He said it had become a norm that some people started doing politics with the crushing season raising fabricated issues.

SIX BOOKED: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) on Friday registered a case against six people, including five officials of the Public Health Engineering Department and Municipal Committee (MC), Chiniot, on charges of embezzlement in a park project.

The officials included Chiniot EXEN Muhammad Riaz, Sub-Divisional Officer Bashir Ahmed, sub-engineers Irshad Ahmed and Zafar Iqbal, Public Health Engineering Department contractor Danish, Municipal Committee TO Muhammad Kazim and MC contractor Qaiser Abbas.

They have been charged with inflicting Rs1.1m loss to the national kitty regarding funds allocated for a park in Chiniot.

The MC and the Public Health Engineering Department had given the amount to the contractors who failed to complete the project even after two years of payment.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2018