HYDERABAD: Various Sindhbased growers` organisations on Tuesday condemned the decision taken by the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association`s threat to stop cane crushing from Wednesday (Dec 14) on the pretext of not getting adequate supplies.

The Sindh Growers` Alliance (SGA) told a press conference in Hyderabad that it had decided to launch a protest campaign on Dec 19 while the Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB)tookoutarallyinMirpurkhas to condemn the threat. The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) also discuss the issue at its meeting in Hyderabad on Tuesday slammed the threat of stopping the mills` operation on `flimsy` grounds and called for action against 16 of them for not continuing cane crushing.

SGA president Nawab Zubair Talpur and general secretary Ali Palh told journalists at the Hyderabad Press Club that theirorganisation discussed the PSMA threat and great deal of unrest among cane growers and decided to launch a protest campaign on Monday (Dec 19).

Rejecting the PSMA claim that they were not getting adequate cane supplies, they said it was just a lame excuse.

In fact, they alleged, the millers hadresortedtoissuingthethreatto blackmail cane growers.

The PSMA move was aimed at compelling growers to sell away their produce to millers at the rates much lower than the official price, they said.

The PSMA move is a step towards violation of the Sugar Factories Control Act,` the SGA leaders said, arguing that the association was under obligation to inform the cane commissioner in writing [that they are not getting adequate cane supplies] which they had not done.

They said that the millers intended to `commit a robbery on the rights of farmers and haris`.

They urged the chief minister,agriculture minister and cane commissioner to tal(e action against them.

The growers` leaders said that the campaign against millers would start with a rally to be taken out from Shahbaz Building and ended at press club on Monday.

`If all sugar mills [in Sindh] did not start cane crushing, we will observe a token hunger strike at all district headquarters on Dec 22. If the demand still remained unmet, protesting growers will had a sit-in outside CM`s House in Karachi, they warned.

In its recent meeting, SCA urged the government to take action against those 16 sugar mills that had not started/continuing cane crushing. It also condemned PSMA threat to stop the process for want of adequate supplies.

`The government should take notice of the threat, which has been issued on flimsy grounds,` it said.

It recalled that it was in the backdrop of the Oct 7 understanding reached between millers and grow-ers with the mediation of the provincial government that mills would start crushing on Nov 15 and procure cane at a minimum rate of Rs182/40kg.

As many as 16 mills had not started cane crushing so far which had put cane producers in serious trouble, the SCA noted.

In Mirpurkhas, a large number of small growers led by SAB president Mohammed Umer Bughio and general secretary Sarfaraz Junejo took out a rally which passed through various roads and ended outside the localpress club, where the participants held a demonstration.

The SAB leaders said that the organisation at its meeting earlier in the day discussed and condemned millers` threat and rejected the pretext given by them for suspending the process of cane crushing.

Speaking to the protesters, Mr Bughio said the PSMA had resorted to blackmailing cane growers with a view to take undue advantages.He urged the farming community to stand united against millers to foil their unjustifiable move, which was a serious threat to the interests of the entire community.

He vowed to resist closure of mills tooth and nail, and recalled that a similar move made by the PSMA last year had been defeated by growers` organisations.

Sarfaraz Junejo, Mumtaz Marri, Malook Rajar, Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah, Masood Wassan, Ghulam Hussain Junejo, Anwer Qalmkhani, Imamdin Maher and Prof Mohammed Yousuf Rajput also spoke to the protesters, and called for a vigorous campaign against millers to force the government look into their tactics.

They said millers had already obtained considerable benefits from government in lieu of agreeing on the ofhcial cane procurement price and they were now blackmailing growers so as to purchase their produce at throwaway prices, thus inflicting heavy losses on farmers and haris.