HYDERABAD, Dec 13: Sugar mills in lower Sindh have decided to resume the crushing from Dec 15. The Sindh cane commissioner, Nazar Mohammad Baloch, and the Sindh zone chairman of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Owners Association , Abdul Wajid Arain, confirmed to Dawn here on Monday that out of 28 mills of upper Sindh, seven had started sugarcane crushing.

These include Al-Noor, Sakrand, Ranipur, Khairpur, Naudero and Matiari sugar mills. The mills had stopped crushing on Dec 2 following a decision by the PSMA, Sindh zone, saying that the mills were not getting sugarcane.

The growers had argued that the cane was in short supply because its production had remained low due to non-availability of water. Badin and Thatta districts were particularly affected in terms of cane production due to late sowing of rice.

Reports said some growers had also switched over to cultivation of other crops such as cotton, sunflower and maize due to the attitude of mill owners who either did not offer fair prices or withheld growers' payment.

An official said last year, Sindh's mills had crushed 12.9 million tons of sugarcane but this year the case would be different. The cane commissioner said he had been assured by the Sindh zone PSMA chairman that the crushing would be resumed from Dec 15.

He said now the mills required maximum two hours to resume crushing as it was only at the time of commencement of the crushing season when boilers needed to be lit much before crushing.

He said even otherwise once the crushing was commenced the mill managements had to give a break to boilers to ensure their maintenance and repair for proper working. He said as per a directive of the Sindh chief minister to check prices being demanded by growers he would look into it after the crushing was resumed.

He disagreed that growers had put on hold the supply of their produce, saying in fact production of sugarcane was very low this year. Mr Arain said 21 mills of lower Sindh would start crushing from Wednesday as per decision of the PSMA.

He admitted that growers and mill owners would bear losses if the deadlock over non-start of crushing persisted. It is learnt that Al-Asif and Bawani sugar mills have cleared their 50 per cent growers' dues of Rs7,513,487 and Rs13,206,305, respectively. The payment was made after the Sindh government threatened to refer their cases to the National Accountability Bureau.