HYDERABAD, Dec 21: Convener of the district council Nawab Rashid Ali Khan has called for coordinated efforts by different forums and local government representatives to determine the funds so far given to HDA have been properly utilised.

He was speaking in the district council session here on Tuesday when its members complained about supply of contaminated water by the Hyderabad Development Authority and the Water and Sanitation Agency. He also directed the HDA director-general to attend the session on Wednesday.

He said that union council nazims and forums like the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture and the Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industries should jointly monitor the working of the HDA.

He added that the organizations should ask the HDA about utilisation of funds so far released to them by the provincial and central governments .He said that the district nazim and DCO should also be consulted in this respect otherwise HDA-related issues would remain unchanged.

He further said that the HDA officials gave some old representations to seek more funds for addressing water supply and sewerage issues of the city. He wondered whether HDA officials were so powerful that even the provincial government did not take any action against them despite the fact that they allotted government land at throw away prices for commercial purpose.

SUGAR MILLS: All the sugar mills in Sindh have started sugarcane crushing as they have started getting sugarcane from growers, according to Sindh cane commissioner Nazar Mohammad Baloch.

He told this correspondent that the mills in Badin and Thatta were also getting sugarcane from other areas like Tando Allahyar and Matiari as harvesting of sugarcane in the districts had been delayed or production of sugarcane affected due to non-availability of water.

The sugar mills had suspended crushing on December 2 following a decision by the Pakistan Sugar Mills Owners Association, Sindh chapter, in protest against reported non-supply of sugarcane by growers.

The growers, however, claimed that they were not being offered actual price of sugarcane i.e. Rs43 per 40 kilogramme. The cane commissioner said that Habib sugar mills got 150,000 maunds of sugarcane whereas Faran sugar mills got 160,000 maunds of sugarcane. He expressed the hope that the situation would further improve.