HYDERABAD, Feb 5: The Sindh Abadgar Board says that the sugar cane crisis is the result of wrong policies of the government and obduracy of mill owners.

The board’s working committee at a meeting held here on Saturday claimed that most of the people in the country were not able to purchase sugar due to the recent price hike.

The meeting, presided over by Abdul Majeed Nizamani, said that during the past few years, mill owners had repeatedly violated government notifications and delayed payment to cane growers which had discouraged them, resulting in reduction of crop production by 36.84 per cent in the country and by 54.76 per cent in Sindh.

It maintained that the government would have to spend Rs42 billion on import of sugar. Also, the meeting claimed, wheat production loss would be to the extent of Rs6.3 billion due to the inordinate delay in the start of crushing season.

The meeting demanded that federal and provincial governments and the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association should fix the minimum price of sugar cane for 2006-2007 at Rs78 per 40kgs to protect the sugar industry from destruction and restore economic stability in the country. This would facilitate farmers of Punjab and Sindh in planning growing of the sugar cane crop, it said.

It proposed that sugar stock of 225,000 tons lying with the Trading Corporation of Pakistan should be off loaded at Rs27 per kg and import of sugar should be stopped forthwith.

It recommended that sugar should be defined as food stuff and exempted from taxes and for the next crushing season, sugar mills in Sindh should be made operational by Oct 15 and in Punjab by Nov 15.

The meeting called for eliminating the role of middleman and making direct purchasing from growers to restore their confidence. It said the sugar industry should provide incentives to growers on the pattern of Australia.

It proposed that a committee, comprising researchers, sugar technologists, industrialists and growers, should be constituted to conduct research on sugar cane and its multiplication. It said expenses in this regard should be met through road cess funds with a matching grant by the Sindh government.

The board demanded that the Sindh government should ban cutting of trees and plants to save the province from turning into a desert and restrict use of small fishing nets to protect various species of fish.

It urged the government to ban slaughter of calf and milch animals, and disposal of industrial effluent in waterways.

It said purchasing centres for wheat should be established throughout Sindh, especially in Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Badin and Tando Mohammad Khan districts, and gunny bags should be provided to growers.

The meeting also demanded ban on import of wheat.