HYDERABAD, March 9: The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture at a meeting held here on Sunday threatened to file a petition in the High Court of Sindh against sugar mills if growers were not paid the notified price of sugarcane.
The meeting, presided over by the chamber’s senior vice-president Mir Murad Ali Talpur, criticised the Sindh cane commissioner for playing no role in ensuring the payment of notified rates of cane to growers.
It urged the government to take effective measures to resolve this burning issue.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Talpur said the growers had been crying hoarse against the obduracy of the sugar mills but failed to get the government rates of cane from the mills.
He regretted that the government and the other departments concerned had also miserably failed to resolve this burning issue.
He said the growers had been left with no other option but to seek justice from the court of law.
He said all growers’ organisations would unite on one platform and would file a writ petition in the Sindh High Court against mill owners to get the government notified rates for their crop.
He pointed out that since the growers were not getting government fixed rates for their crop, a large quantity of sugarcane could not be harvested and growers were on the horns of a dilemma.
He said if the standing crop were not harvested, the growers would not be able to cultivate the next crop.
He called upon the government to resolve this issue without further delay.
Akhund Mohammad Siddiqui, Anwar Bachani, Dr Shahnawaz Shah, Mir Imdad Talpur and others attended the meeting.
WATER THEFT: A large number of growers and Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz activists staged a demonstration here on Sunday to protest against water theft from Rahuki Shakh.
The demonstration was led by JSQM leader Dr Niaz Kalani and leaders of the growers. Speaking on the occasion, they said that supply to the Rahuki Shakh had been suspended and whatever water was available in it was being stolen by influential growers. As a result, they added, crops sown by poor growers were being destroyed.
Dr Kalani warned that if water was not released into Rahuki Shakh in eight days, the JSQM would stage a protest sit-in in the city.
Protest: The activists of Sindhi Shagird Tehrik staged a protest demonstration outside the press club here on Sunday against the proposed establishment of a girls’ medical college on the premises of the historic Hyderabad public school.
Speaking on the occasion, SST leader Arbab Janjhi, Ghaffar Malik, Ayaz Chandio and others criticised the principal of Hyderabad public school for maintaining a silence on this issue.
They demanded that the proposal to establish the girls’ medical college in the historical public school should be shelved and the same should be established in some backward district of Sindh like Thatta.
