NAWABSHAH, Nov 6: The Sindh cane commissioner on Tuesday lodged cases against three more sugar mills, raising the number of mills facing cases for failure to start crushing on Nov 1, to 12 out of a total of 28 sugar mills of the province.
Habib, Sakrand and Al-Noor sugar mills face charges of violating the Sugarcane Factories Act by delaying crushing in spite of clear orders from the Sindh government. A separate case has been registered against Sakrand Sugar Mills for failing to clear Rs8.6 million dues it owed to the growers.
Ali Dino Abro, technical officer of the cane commissioner office, told journalists in Khairpur that the cases had been filed with the second senior civil judge of Nawabshah and the civil judge of Sakrand.
No responsible official of the sugar mills could be reached for comments but some sources in the mills said that the mills were unable to start crushing because of acute shortage of labourers, who had not yet come back from Swat. The mills would start issuing indents to growers after Nov 10 and commence crushing on Nov 15, they said.
Earlier on Nov 3, the cane inspectors registered cases against Mirpurkhas, Ranipur, Abadgar, Ansari, Faran, Tando Mohammad Khan, Mirza, Bhawani and Khairpur sugar mills under the Sugar Factories Control Act 1950 after expiry of Nov 1 deadline.
The Sindh government had issued notices to all the sugar mills directing them to start crushing from Nov 1 and the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) had asked for more time but no mill owners gave any reply to the notices.
The grower leaders demand action against sugar mills and accuse the PSMA of deliberately delaying crushing to do them financial harm. The longer they took to start crushing the more the cane would lose its weight, hence windfall profits for the mill owners at the growers’ expense, they said.
SECTION 144: The district nazim on Tuesday declared the examination centres in the district as prohibited areas under section 144 during examinations for Class-XI and XII from Nov 20 to Dec 3, as well as from Nov 12 to Dec 12 during the examinations for Allama Iqbal Open University.
