KARACHI: Growers march, taken out from Hyderabad to Karachi against non-implementation of sugarcane rate of Rs182 per 40kg, was stopped at Fawara Chowk from proceeding towards Sindh Assembly here on Monday.
Around 2000 growers, including females, under the banner of Sindh Agriculture Research Council (SARC) and led by council leaders Ali Palah and Jamal Mehmood Khuhro, reached Karachi Press Club, held a protest demonstration and proceeded towards Sindh Assembly, but heavy contingents of police stopped them at Fawara Chowk. Earlier, they were stopped at Tool Plaza on Super Highway.
“The government representatives contacted us and arranged a meeting with Sindh ministers Nasir Hussain Shah and Ismael Rahu, and Sindh Agriculture Secretary,” SARC leader Jamal Mehmood Khuhro told PPI. He said that the growers’ delegation comprising eight SARC leaders held a meeting with the two ministers and the secretary and presented them their charter of demands. “The ministers assured the delegation that sugarcane rate of Rs182 per 40kg would be implemented within week. Later, the growers withdrew protest,” he said. However, Khuhro said that they would resume protest if their demands were not met.
The growers told PPI that sugar mills in Sindh had been started late while the millers were not paying the rates announced by the government. They said that Rs130 per 40kg rate of sugarcane was being paid as compared to Rs182 official rate, which was a great injustice with them. “We also suffered heavy losses last year, they said and added that the prices of fertilizer and cost of labor had risen to high level; therefore, the government should bound millers to pay the Rs182 rate with immediate effect.