Sugar mills directed to clear dues of growers

Punjab Minister for Population Welfare gives a week for the payments

LAHORE: Punjab Minister for Population Welfare Colonel (retd) Hashim Dogar has said sugar mills owners must ensure payment of the pending amount to sugarcane growers by next week.

The minister expressed these views while chairing a meeting held on Friday in connection with the payments of arrears worth Rs880 million to sugarcane cultivators. “Mill owners should settle their matters with the banks so that sugarcane growers can get their rights,” he said.

Punjab Cane Commissioner Wajid Ali Shah, Deputy Commissioner Kasur Sarwat Saeed and the representatives of Pattoki Sugar Mill and Brothers Sugar Mill attended the meeting.



Dogar said the matter regarding payment to growers has taken much time, now it should be resolved on an immediate basis. He said the Punjab government was strictly monitoring the crushing season and Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar was himself looking into the matter.

The chief minister has assigned the task to all senior officers, including cabinet members to protect the rights of the growers. The provincial minister said a crackdown was being conducted against the middlemen across the province and cases were being registered against the exploiters of sugarcane growers. Measures and scales were being strictly monitored and no one would be allowed to violate the rules, he added.