HYDERABAD, Nov 23: A large number of sugar mills in Sindh have not started crushing sugarcane though the government had directed mill owners to commence crushing from Nov 10.

Sources told Dawn that the cane commissioner’s office was preparing cases against mill owners which would be presented in the court.

According to reports, 21 of 27 sugar mills have not yet started crushing.

When contacted on telephone in Karachi, Pakistan Sugar Mills Association’s Sindh chapter chairman Abdul Wajid Arain said many sugar mills had started crushing but they had to suspend the process due to ‘no-cane’ situation.

He said sugar mills could not resume production because growers had withheld cane supply. He was of the opinion that growers were hoping that mill owners would raise the price of sugarcane due to competition. “The fault lay with growers and not with sugar mills,” he claimed.

However, a senior office-bearer of the Sindh Abadgar Board did not agree with the chairman of the Sindh PSMA and said mill owners were adopting delaying tactics to derive maximum benefit from the crushing process at the cost of growers.

He argued that when the crushing was delayed, the quantity of sucrose in sugarcane increased but its weight decreased. He said that by delaying the crushing season, mill owners would get more sucrose and thus more sugar production while paying less due to decreased weight of sugarcane. Not only this, he said, but growers would also suffer because they would not be able to cultivate wheat on fields where sugarcane was still standing.

Protest: Activists of the Jeay Sindh Mahaz, Junejo group, held a protest demonstration outside the press club here on Wednesday against the SHO of the Husri police station for allegedly harassing their colleague.

Speaking on the occasion, Ghulam Haider Bhutto and other party leaders said the Husri police were conducting raids on the house of Babu Mukki without any reason.

They warned that if harassment of the activist was not stopped, they would enlarge the scope of their protest.

When contacted on telephone, the SHO denied the allegations and said Babu Mukki had been asked to file his statement in an inquiry because an application had been received against him.

DEMONSTRATION: Journal-ists of Hyderabad held a protest demonstration outside the press club against the death of Salma Khuhro, sister-in-law of journalist Naimat Khuhro, in the Liaquat University Medical Hospital due to alleged negligence of doctors.