KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday directed the cane commissioner to convene a meeting of a seven-member committee, constituted by the court to settle the outstanding dues of growers, within 10 days to sort out pending claims of sugar-cane growers.

The cane commissioner appe­ar­ed before the two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar on Wednesday, filed a report and contended that various claims had been settled.

However, some growers were present in the court during Wed­nes­day’s proceedings as their claims had not been addressed.

One of the members of the committee was present in the court and the bench directed him to go through the report and point out names of growers at the next hearing who had not been paid their dues. The bench also asked the cane commissioner to convene a meeting of the committee within 10 days with written intimation to all the members of the committee so that after reading the report the committee can identify the growers whose claims were pending.

The cane commissioner in the report said that 1,119 applicants/claims were filed by the growers against the sugar mills over non-payment of dues and added that the committee had reconciled outstanding dues of 11 sugar mills.

However, the report said that eight sugar mills, including Ansar Sugar Mills Matli, Bawany Sugar Mills Talhar, Chambar Sugar Mills, Khoski Sugar Mills, Larr Sugar Mills Sujawal, Naudero Sugar Mills, New Dadu Sugar Mills and Tando Allahyar Sugar Mills said that since their bank accounts had been frozen on directives of the Supreme Court, they were unable to make payments.

It further said that 588 claims amounting over Rs580 million were pending against these eight sugar mills, while out of 34, nine claims were still pending against Bandhi Sugar Mills and 82 against Sakrand Sugar Mills.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2019