HYDERABAD, Jan 3: A meeting has been convened on Saturday to resolve the problems, faced by the sugarcane growers and the sugar mills’ owners, senior Sindh minister Syed Sardar Ahmed said on Friday.

He was talking to the president of the Sindh Abadgar Board, Abdul Majeed Nizamani, who called on him to apprise the senior minister about the problems, being faced by the sugarcane growers and the sugar mills of Sindh.

Mr Ahmed said that the representatives of the growers and the mill owners would attend the meeting, which will be held at the Chief Minister House in Karachi.

The general secretary of the Sindh Abadgar Board, Syed Mehmood Nawaz Shah, will represent the growers at the meeting.

Earlier, Mr Nizamani presented a detailed memorandum, highlighting the problems of the agriculture sector.

He stressed on the need for exporting surplus sugar without any further delay to save the sugarcane growers from irreparable losses, adding that it would also rescue the sugar mills from crisis.

He also called for provision of export rebate at the rate of Rs6 per kg, besides reducing the GST on sugar to 10 per cent.

The president of the SAB expressed fear that both the industry and the agricultural sector might collapse if relief was not provided to them on an emergency basis.

He said that according to the official figures, the agricultural sector of Sindh sustained a loss of Rs27 billion due to acute shortage of water during the past two years, adding that inadequate prices, offered for the crops, and inordinate increase in the cost of production had compounded the situation.

He said that Sindh might face losses, amounting to Rs20 billion during the current year.

He blamed the sugar mills for the two-month-long delay in starting the sugarcane crushing season, saying that the delay had caused Sindh to suffer such huge losses while sowing of wheat had been hindered over 600,000 acres.

He said that the growers would lose Rs6 billion on account of the delay in sowing of wheat crop alone.

DEMO: The employees of Hilal Confectionery staged a demonstration outside the local press club on Friday against the factory’s management.

Speaking on the occasion, Aslam Sindhi, Azam Kalhoro and Aslam Bhutto protested over recruiting of workers from Punjab after the reopening of the factory.

They appealed the prime minister, the governor of Sindh, the federal minister for production, Hyderabad district Nazim and the provincial president of the National Labour Federation to take notice of the anti-workers policies of the factory.