MUZAFFARGARH: The district administration got three officials of the Tandlianwala Sugar Mills arrested on Thursday for their refusal to release sugarcane payments to farmers despite severalwarnings.

On the instructions of DC Agha Zaheer Abbas Shirazi, AC Nasir Dogar took action against the three officials of the Tandlianwala Sugar Mills` Rehman Hajra Unit for delaying the payment of sugarcane to farmers.

AC Dogar stated that the administration had received multiple complaints from farmers over delayed payments, to which the deputy commissioner responded by ordering the mill administration to provide a list of farmers whose payments had not been paid.The district administration forwarded cane purchase receipts to the mills, but they did not cooperate with the government. He said that the mill owes more than Rs1 billion to the sugarcane farmers.

He said that negotiations were held with the representatives of the mill management, and they were asked to provide a list of all the farmers.

Farmers said the behaviour of the mill administration caused them sleepless nights. Many times, mill officials were called to the DC office on payment compliance issues, but they did not cooperate with the government officials.

Dawn contacted the mill`s owner, former minister Haroon Akhtar, but he was not available for comment.Correspondent