APP
The Sindh Abadgar Board has urged the Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to resume issuance of notifications officially commencing the sugarcane crushing season and fixing buying price of the crop. In a letter addressed to the CM on Monday, the SAB’s President Mahmood Nawaz Shah stated that the Sugar Factories Control Act, 1950, provided a framework for the smooth running of the industry. “The provincial government, through a process, is to notify the start date of the crushing season and the purchase price of sugarcane,” he added. He recalled that since 2025, the provincial government had stopped issuing the notifications, pointing out that it happened for the first time in many decades. “If the government doesn’t notify the season or the price, the growers are left at the mercy of sugar mills. This is contrary to the spirit of the law and it has tilted the balance in favour of the sugar mills,” he contended. Shah pointed out that small and medium-sized growers were the most worried while a majority of the small growers had decided to plant wheat in the area harvested from sugarcane. “You may know that sugar mills used to start crushing in October, and last year, as the government did not issue the notification, the sugar mills started in December,” he recalled.