MUZAFFARGARH: Sugarcane farmers have been waiting for the release of their payments for the last three weeks from the Tandliawala Sugar Mills.
Earlier, when the crushing season started in the second week of December, the district administration claimed that mills were bound to release cane payments within two weeks.
The other two mills in the district — the Fatima Sugar Mills and the Sheikhu Sugar Mills — cleared payments within two weeks at the rate of Rs180 per 40 kilo whereas Tandliawala Sugar Mills neither committed any schedule nor buying rates with the cane suppliers.
A Tandliawala Sugar Mills official said they had received no specific instructions regarding payment schedule from their head office.
Farmers are worried about their payments.
Mehr Khizar, a sugarcane farmer, said he supplied cane to the Tandliawala Mills very first day of the crushing season as he needed cash to pay the fee of his student doctor daughter but the mills administrations refused to give him the price of his yield.
Tandliawala Mills Cane Manager Hafeez said their mills ran only 12 hours a day because of short supply of cane to them. He said most of the farmers were supplying cane to Fatima and Sheikhu mills.
Some farmers alleged that cane managers were getting a Rs1,000 bribe per vehicle but the cane manager denied these allegations.
Tandliawala Sugar Mills administrations said the payment schedule would be issued soon.
Dera Ghazi Khan Commissioner Tahir Khursheed said he would make sure that the Tandliawala mills release payments to farmers within a week.