Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Warns Sugar Mills Owners Against Delay In Starting Sugarcane Crushing

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Mahmood Khan Tuesday warned the sugar mills owners to immediately start crushing of sugarcane.

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Dec, 2018 ) :Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Mahmood Khan Tuesday warned the sugar mills owners to immediately start crushing of sugarcane.

Addressing a high level meeting here at CM House, he said the delay in crushing affects the sugarcane growers bringing losses to them and the government would never compromise on the interest of the cultivators.

The failure of the mills owners would leave the government with no other option but to use the law and appoint administrators to start the crushing without any lapse of time.

The meeting was attended by provincial Minister for Information, Shaukat Yousafzai, Minister food Qalandar Lodhi, Chief Secretary Naveed Kamran Baloch, Principal Secretary to CM Muhammad Israr, Secretary Finance, Shakeel Qadir, Secretary Food Akbar Khan, Commissioner Sugarcane Saadat Hasan and others.

The meeting thoroughly debated the reservations of the sugarcane growers and their problems arising out of the none starting of crushing of sugarcane by the mills owners.

The meeting was briefed about the legal way out to deal with the situation that included the nature of demand of the sugar mills owners, the steps taken by the government department, the reaction shown by the sugar mills owners and the subsequent grievances of the sugarcane growers.

The meeting was further informed about the possibility of law and order situation in D.I.Khan because of the non starting of sugar crushing by the relevant sugar mills in the district. The non starting of the crushing season was affecting five to six thousands families.

The chief minister directed to immediately address to this problem and resolve it on priority basis.

He directed the Secretary Food, Commissioner Sugarcane, Commissioner D.I.Khan and DIG D.I.Khan to conduct meetings with the mills owners and informed them about the gravity of the situation.

If the sugar mills owners stop their protest and start the crushing of sugarcane timely, it would be in the benefit of all but if they dis-agree and do not start the crushing, the next most suitable option would be to take these mills over by the administration and run them through its own administrators.