HYDERABAD, Dec 24: A long-time dispute between growers and sugar mill owners over fixation of sugar cane prices was settled with the intervention of President Gen Pervez Musharraf during his visit to the city on Friday, Dawn learnt through reliable sources on Saturday.

The president had met with the leaders of the growers at the local Circuit House during the visit.

The Sindh Abadgar Board and the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture had raised the issue before the president about inordinate delay in start of the crushing season.

The Sindh Abadgar Board had argued in a written memorandum, a copy of which had been obtained by Dawn, that the prices of sugar cane procurement in Punjab were Rs75 per 40 kg whereas in Sindh the mills were not even ready to pay Rs60 per 40 kg.

The board said the farmers would suffer huge losses as they could not cultivate wheat due to late start of crushing.

The SAB feared that the farmers would suffer from a loss of Rs12 billion if crushing was not started immediately.

According to the sources President General Musharraf had asked the Sindh chief minister to solve the issue without any delay.

As a result of the president’s instruction, a meeting was held in Karachi on Friday night between stakeholders and the mill owners.

The mills agreed to pay Rs58 per 40 kg to the growers.

When contacted on telephone, Sindh Abadgar Board president Abdul Majeed Nizamani said that he had been unofficially informed that the mills had agreed to pay Rs58 per 40 kg.

The president of the Sindh chapter of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association, Wajid Arain, confirmed that a memorandum of understanding had been signed between the mill owners and the agriculture secretary.

RECOVERY: The recovery in-charge of the City taluka municipal administration here on Saturday sealed two premises of the circular building in the ongoing campaign against municipal tenants for recovery of dues.