DERA ISMAIL KHAN: The local sugarcane farmers have criticised the delay in start of crushing by the sugar mills.
The farmers lamented that the owners of the sugar mills were deliberately delaying the start of sugarcane crushing to maximise their benefit. They said that the farmers held a meeting with owners of the sugarcane mills to persuade them to start the crushing but they refused to do so.
They said that under the Sugar Mills Control Act 1950, the sugarcane crushing shall be started between October 1 to November 30. They said that the government has to take action against a sugar mill if it failed to start sugarcane crushing within the above mentioned period.
They termed delay in the start of sugarcane crushing as a weakness of the provincial government to press the owners of sugar mills to start the crushing. “The owners of the sugar mills are influential and so powerful that the government cannot take action against them,” said a farmer, Barkat Ali.
The farmers urged Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and provincial government to perform his legal obligations and moral responsibility and take action against the owners of sugarcane mills for unnecessary delay in start of the crushing season.
