'Rights of sugarcane growers will be protected'

Cane Commissioner Punjab, Waqas Alam while presiding over a joint meeting here at DC Office committee room has said the rights of the sugarcane growers would be protected and no exploitation against them would be tolerated. Representatives of farmers and sugar mills in the district also attended the meeting.
Deputy Commissioner Salman Ghani, ADC Revenue Muhammad Shahid, Director Agriculture Chaudhry Abdul Hameed, Deputy Director Shabbir Afzal Warriach, DO Industries Khalid Mehmud, ACs and other officers were also present in the meeting. The Cane Commissioner said that the management of the sugar mills asked for payment of sugarcane within stipulated time otherwise legal action would be taken against the defaulters.
Taking notice of the unfair deduction of the weight of sugarcane, the Cane Commissioner said that the monitoring teams had been mobilized to check these irregularities. He emphasised upon the close co-ordination between ACs and farmers organisations and said that middleman should strictly be discouraged.
He asked the sugar mills management to follow the prescribed rules, conditions and relevant law for completing the crushing season in a smooth manner. Deputy Commissioner Salman Ghani informed that control rooms were working at district and tehsil level for the monitoring of the crushing season in the district. He said that the farmers could contact the control room in case of any complaint and legal action would be taken on complaints without delay. During the meeting the representatives of the sugar mills assured their co-operation. The representatives who attended the meeting included Mian Rehanul Haq, Chaudhry Nazir Ahmad, Zia Alamdar Hussain, Raja Abdul Rasheed, Muhammad Azeem and others.