HYDERABAD, Oct 19: Sindh Cane Commissioner Nazar Mohammad Baloch has expressed the hope that mills will start sugarcane crushing on Oct 20 as committed by the Pakistan Sugar Mills Owners Association at a meeting with Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim on Oct 16.

He confirmed on Tuesday that Matiari, Sindh Abadgar, Khairpur and Ansari sugar mills had started proceedings for the crushing season.

The crushing season was initially to start on Oct 1 but it was postponed because mill owners claimed that sugarcane was not ripe and they could begin crushing in November.

Reports said the mills had communicated to the government at a meeting held on Sept 28 in presence of the Sindh chief minister that rollers of majority of the mills were being repaired and it was unlikely to finish the work on time. Previous experiences have showed that whenever the crushing season began in November-December it took several months to be over.

Only the Najma Sugar Mill, Jhuddo, has started crushing as per schedule, which was inaugurated by the chief minister. Thereafter, there were heavy rains for three days with the result that supply to the Najma Sugar Mill also stopped.

Later, the date for the sugarcane crushing was fixed at Oct 15. However, following rains, farmers requested the chief minister to extend the date by another five days so that sugarcane could be harvested because rain water was standing in fields.