JHENIDAH, May 30: The salaries of the officials and employees of the Mubarakganj Sugar Mill have remained unpaid for the last two months.
Sources said the mill staff received their full payment of February and a partial payment of March after the sale of some sugar at the reduction rate of Tk 50 per kg.
On Monday, the mill authority paid full salary of February and partial salary of March to the officers and other employees of the mill. However, the salary of the rest two months is lying unpaid.
General Secretary of Mobarakganj Sugar Mill Shramik Union Atiar Rahman said, "Whenever the government decreased the price of locally produced sugar, the private companies cut their price of this food item.
General Manager (Administration) Dilip Kumar Biswas said a total of 50386.71 tonne of sugar worth Tk 269.34 million and 4353.74 tonne of molasses worth Tk 87.075 are lying unsold in the godown of the mill.
Dilip Biswas said they were able to sell some of their stored sugar in free market after the government cut its price to Tk 50 per kg.
The officers and employees took less money than their actual dues for sugar could be sold less than Tk 50 per kg. The dealers were reluctant to draw sugar apprehending losses.
GM (Finance) Saiful Islam said the mill needs Tk 15 million in the peak season and Tk 1.0 million during the off season for payment of the labour, employees and officers.
Saiful Islam said that the mill's total bank loan was Tk 12 billion.
A sugarcane farmer Rustam Ali of Badanpur village under Sadar upazila said sugarcane labour crisis disheartened the cultivators to grow this economic crop in large scale.
Labourers shows disinterest in working on sugarcane fields for its piercing leaves. Moreover, it takes 14-15 months to harvest sugarcane, while a farmer could get paddy three times during the period.
Besides, land owners preferred to give lease of their land to tobacco cultivators as they paid the same amount of money to the owners (Tk 12000 Tk 14000 per 46 decimals) only for a short period of three months.
He further said the mill failed to pay their sugarcane price in time.
Cane Manager Noyeem Siddiqi said they tried their best to persuade the farmers to cultivate the major economic crop. However, the target of cultivation could not be achieved due to adverse weather during the plantation season.
They targeted to bring 9,000 acres of land under sugarcane cultivation. However, excessive rainfall and non-payment of the sugarcane price in due time emerged as obstacles to the fulfilment of target. And a total of 5771 acres of land had been brought under sugarcane cultivation.
Managing Director of Mobarakganj Sugar Mill Yusuf Ali Sikdar told this correspondent that the sugar mills across the country were going through a crisis.
However, they are grateful to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for her liberal attitude towards Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industry Corporation.
He expressed the hope that sugarcane cultivation will increase in the coming years due to rise in sugarcane price and fall in paddy rate.
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