PM Imran Khan. PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has convened separate meetings to discuss the prices of sugar cane and cotton after several federal ministers reported that the crop growers were not being paid the specified rates by mill owners.
According to a document available with The Express Tribune, several ministers during the last cabinet meeting highlighted the issue and maintained that mill owners had stopped the purchase of sugar cane due to which poor farmers were facing extreme difficulties.
The cabinet members called for protecting the farmer rights, while raising objections against All Pakistan Sugar Mills Association.
PM Imran reiterated that the government would ensure that the payments were made to the sugar cane cultivators and would not tolerate injustice against them.
The meeting will include representatives from Ministry of National Food Security, provincial governments and All Pakistan Sugar Mills Association.
Last year in October, a Sugarcane Control Board meeting — chaired by the agriculture minister in Karachi — to fix a minimum sugar cane price remained inconclusive. Millers disagreed with the rate of Rs250 per 40 kilograms demanded by growers.
Farmers disagreed with such a price saying it was unviable given their cost of inputs, the federal government had also withdrawn subsidy on fertilisers.
In 2014, the millers had challenged section 16 of Sugar Factories Control Act 1950, which empowers the government to fix the minimum price of sugarcane, in the Sindh High Court (SHC). But the court had rejected the millers’ joint petition.
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