Call to protect sugarcane growers

LAHORE: Pakistan Kissan Movement Secretary General Hanif Gujjar has appealed to the Punjab chief minister to take action against the sugarcane middlemen exploiting the growers. In a statement issued here Tuesday, the farmer leader said the farmers should be saved from the clutches of middlemen who are freely moving in Punjab. During a meeting with a group of farmers, Hanif Gujjar said the sugar mills have not opened their purchasing centres up till now in the remote areas where farmers are facing difficulties in selling their sugarcane. On inquiry, it has come to the knowledge of farmers that up till now the cane commissioner Punjab has not given any licence or permission to the sugar mills for operation of their purchase centres. This amounts to high handedness against the farmers who are bound to sell sugarcane at lesser price than the price notified by the Punjab government.