Growers slam KP govt for low sugarcane price

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: The growers on Monday criticised the KP government for low prices of sugarcane crop and urged an upward review. The growers said the provincial government had fixed Rs150 per 50kg against the Rs180 for the same amount of sugarcane in Punjab and Sindh provinces. They said the Punjab and Sindh governments paid rebate to sugar mills and that was why the mills were offering Rs180 per 50kg to farmers while on contrary the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa didn’t pay the rebate to sugar mills in the province and they were purchasing the crop on Rs150 per maund. The growers said the government ignored the issue, which, they feared, would affect the agricultural sector.

Meanwhile, the farmers belonging to Punjab staged protest against the district administration for preventing the sugar mills from purchasing sugarcane from the growers from other districts. The protesting farmers parked the tractor-trolleys loaded with sugarcane on the road at Dera Darya Khan bridge connecting the two provinces. The police lodged cases against 150 farmers for blocking the road. The activists of Markazi Anjuman-e-Tajiran and Pakistan People’s Party also staged protest against the low prices and alleged purchase of sugarcane by the mills owners from the farmer from Punjab.