LAHORE, Jan 26: The sugar mills in the province have cleared Rs26 billion dues of growers outstanding from the last year, according to Punjab Cane Commissioner Nasim Nawaz.

Presiding over a departmental meeting here on Monday, he said the mills owed Rs26.021 billion to the growers last year, and had now produced clearance slips. Only Rs2.2 million were still to be paid because the matter was in court, he added.

The meeting, which was also attended by the district revenue officers, also decided to take measures to eliminate the role of middlemen, and check short-measuring and less payment. Action against these crimes could go up to confiscation of stocks and/or sealing of mills.

The officials also noted that in some cases mills were paying less than indicative price of Rs40 and resolved to take necessary measures against them. Meanwhile, the recently constituted provincial sugarcane development cess committee also held its first meeting here on Monday. The committee, chaired by the cane commissioner, decided that only it would be entitled to grant final approval to all development projects under the cess head. Earlier, the district governments had been dealing with these.

Explaining the rationale behind centralizing the development process, the commissioner said dealing by the districts had led to many complaints of lopsided development, mainly due to political reasons. Therefore, the committee had resolved to reserve the right of final approval for itself.

However, the districts could still propose projects but their approval, release of funds and monitoring would be the prerogative of the committee, he said.

The committee is currently able to approve projects worth Rs324 million, the amount which has recently been recovered from the millers. Around Rs19 million are still outstanding to mills and new projects would be approved as soon as the amount came in the departmental accounts, he said.