MUZAFFARGARH: The sugarcane farmers are disappointed as the mills’ administrations have stopped their payments and decided not to give the government rates of Rs180 per maund.

The mills administrations are offering Rs160 per maund through middlemen. Several tractor trolleys laden with sugarcane have been parked outside the mills for quite some time and the administrations have not cleared dues. The middlemen have set up their own weighing scales along the roads in Kot Addu and Jatoi tehsils.

Officials of the district administration told Dawn that 26 cases had been registered against middlemen and one of them had been arrested. The farmers allege that it is an eyewash because the administration registered cases and imposed Rs5,000 fine on the middlemen last year that proved futile.

There are four sugar mills in Muzaffargarh. The farmers allege that officials of Fatima sugar mills, Sheikhu sugar mills and Haseeb Waqas sugar mills connive at the role of the middlemen.

Commissioner Tahir Khursheed conducted a surprise visit at Fatima sugar mills last week and also met the farmers who complained about denial of payment at Rs180 per maund announced by the government.

They said the sugar mills had started buying quite late and yield was also less this time than it was last year. Local MPAs, they said, also ignored the farmers’ problems.

Meanwhile, PPP MNA Malik Raza Rabbani Khar has promised that he will take up the issue of denial of dues to the farmers in the National Assembly.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2018