HYDERABAD – The Sindh Abadgar Board, a farmers’ lobbying group, has demanded payment of Rs 8.63 billion from the sugar mills .
According to a press release issued here on Sunday, the board’s president Abdul Majeed Nizamani told a meeting of the board that he requested the caretaker government in that regard. Nizamani said around two months had passed since all the sugar mills stopped their operations but they had not paid dues of the sugarcane farmers.
He said the provincial government had been requested to play its part in ensuring swift release of the amount to the farmers.
Many farmers belonging to different districts of Sindh complained at the meeting that instead of the Supreme Court fixed rate of Rs160 per maund, several mills bought cane from them at the rate of Rs 130 per maund.
The meeting also expressed deep concern over the situation of shortage of water and condition of fresh water lakes in Sindh.
Dr Bashir Nizmani, Dr Zulfiqar Yousfani, Syed Nadeem Shah, Aslam Mari, Abdul Rehman Khatti and other farmers attended the meeting.