MUZAFFARGARGH: The relocation verdict worries hundreds of farmers whose Rs100 million have been stuck with the Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills for over one year.

As soon as the news channels broke the news of the Lahore High Court verdict on Monday ordering the shifting of the three sugar mills by the Sharif family to central Punjab districts, Haseeb Waqas Mills amongst them, the farmers gathered at the mills gate and demanded the release of their money.

On Tuesday, they gathered first at the mills gate and later at the deputy commissioner office.

They said that with the relocation of the mills, their money would go forever.

Haseeb Waqas Mills was illegally shifted from Nankana Sahib to Muzaffargarh`s Jatoi tehsil in 2015.

When the unusual heavy construction was going on at 82 acres inmauza Jagmal, the local people did not know about the sugar mills as the site had a huge hoarding reading `Punjab Jagmal Fisheries`. When the mills began its first crushing season in 2015, the Punjab cane commissioner had declared it defaulters on farmers` dues from Nankana.

In 2016, when the crushing season was at peak, the Lahore High Court ordered closure of the mills, which triggered protests among farmers as the mills stopped their dues citing the closure issue. Syed Ahmad Bukhari, a farmer, said he along with his relatives had visited the mills many times for their payments but in vain.

Last month, Deputy Commissioner Saif Anwar had asked the police to register a case against mills owner for defaulting on payments. In 2016, the cane commissioner once again declared the mills defaulter, but the local labour department did not take action against the mills.

Though villagers were not so much excited or bothered about asugar mills in the area, the three sugar mills already functioning in Muzaffargarh had been alarmed by the prospects of a fourth mills in the district, and that too owned by a powerful ruling elite. Of the three sugar mills Sheikhu Sugar Mills, Tandlianwala Sugar Mills and Fatima Sugar Mills two mills moved the LHC, Multan bench, at that time and tool( stay on the construction of the mills.

Muzaffargarh was once a core cotton crop area. The setting up of sugar mills in the last two decades has changed crop dynamics. At that time the lawyers of the Fatima Sugar Mills and Tandlianwala Sugar Mills, that moved the LHC Multan bench, said the Haseeb Waqas group had no NOC for construction, power supply and regarding environmental impact.

Haseeb Waqas mills cane manager AB Shaheen said this year they owed Rs100 million to farmers and that his owner would challenge the relocation orders in the Supreme Court.