LAHORE: The cane commissioner has ordered registration of a case against owners of a sugar mill located in Chiniot for not paying to a sugarcane grower despite receiving consignments of the crop from him.

Syed Sibte Hassan Sherazi, the assistant cane commissioner, in a letter to the Faisalabad city police officer on Wednesday directed to register an FIR against Hassan Ahmed, son of Muhammad Khurshid, the occupier of Madinah Sugar Mills, Chiniot, and a resident of Faisalabad University Town, under section 21 of the Punjab Sugar Factories (Control) Act, 1950, for failing to pay dues to a sugarcane grower.

The orders were issued on a written complaint by Riaz Hussain, who claimed that he had supplied sugarcane worth around Rs1.3 million to the Madinah Sugar Mills in various consignments starting from Feb 22 during this crushing season. The last consignment was supplied on March 1. The total worth of all the 12 consignments was over Rs1.28m and the complainant has the CPRs (cane procurement receipts) but no payments against these have so far been made.

Action taken as per defunct ordinance

Mr Hussain says that his electricity connection has been severed by the power utility concerned due to non-payment as the complainant has no money other than that amount outstanding against the sugar mill.

The plaintiff has sought action against the mill owner under the defunct ordinance that had amended the Sugar Factories (Control) Act, 1950, and bound the mill owners to pay the sugarcane dues within 15 days of the date of purchase and through formal banking channels.

The ordinance, however, lost even its second 60-day life on March 24 as the provincial government didn’t enact it into a law, though a bill for the purpose is being vetted by the standing committee concerned of the Punjab Assembly.

Cane Commissioner Muhammad Zaman Wattoo asserts that the ordinance still has the powers to decide the cases pertaining to 2020-21 crushing season. He argues that any offence committed during the period when a certain law against the offence was in force can be tried in a court of law under the defunct law.

Thus, he says his office has issued orders for the registration of an FIR against the Madinah Sugar Mills for not paying dues within 15 days to the complainant as per the [now defunct] ordinance.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2021