Refusal to start crushing: Detention orders against sugar mills officials, owners issued

JHANG: DC Shaukat Ali has issued detention orders of four top officials and owners of two sugar mills for 90 days on their refusal to start crushing season here on Wednesday.

The local police arrested senior vice president and general manager administration of the sugar mill and are conducting raids to arrest the remaining three. The DC issued detention orders of total five administrators of both mills, including the owner. The sugar mills are owned by a high-profile industrial business group of the country. According to the government decision about crushing season, three small sugar mills have started the crushing season while the other main two mills, situated on Jhang-Chiniot Sargodha Road and Jhang-Toba Tek Singh Road, are still reluctant to start purchasing the crop from the growers.

Talking to the reporters in front of the DC office, aggrieved farmers Ramzan, Khan Muhammad, Khalid Mehmood, Zawar Hussain, Gulzar Ahmed and other small sugarcane growers said that they came here to inform the DC about the discriminatory attitude being adopted by the millers who used to prefer influential farmers during the crop purchase process. They pointed out that supply permits are being issued to the powerful farmers who could hold large protests.