Sugarcane crushing begins at three mills

Sugarcane crushing began on Friday at three sugar mills of the country for the 2014-2015 season, report agencies.
With 7,493 tonnes of sugar still remaining unsold, Setabganj Sugar Mills began its sugarcane crushing programme for the season on the day.
This season, the sugar production target is set at 4,500 tonnes, said officials.
General secretary of Setabganj Sugar Mills Workers-Employees Association Prashanta Kumar Chouhan said some 7,493 tonnes of sugar worth Tk 390 million from the previous crushing season still remains unsold at the mill godowns.
He also said their wages for several months are still overdue.
Meanwhile, Panchagarh Sugar Mills Ltd (PSML) in the sub-Himalayan district of Panchagarh launched crushing sugarcane for the 2014-2015 season.
Member of Parliament (MP) from Panchagrh-1 constituency Nazmul Haque Pradhan launched the crushing of sugarcane at a ceremony arranged on the PSML premises as the chief guest with Managing Director of PSML SM Abdur Rashid in the chair.
MP from reserved constituency Mrs Selina Jahan and Panchagarh Zila Parishad Administrator Advocate Abu Bakar Siddique attended the ceremony as special guests.
Panchagarh District Muktijoddha Commander Mirja Abul Kalam, its former Commander SM Liyakat Ali, President of PSML unit Employees' Association Jamal Hossain, its General Secretary Ahammad Ali and sugarcane grower Ali Ahammad also spoke on the occasion.
According to official sources, the PSML will produce 5,950 tonnes of sugar at seven per cent recovery rate by crushing 85,000 tonnes of sugarcane produced in the mill zone this season.
Thakurgaon Sugar Mills also started production on the day for 2014-2015 sugarcane crushing season.
President of the Parliamentary Standing Committee of the Ministry of Water Resources Ramesh Chandra Sen, MP, inaugurated the crushing of sugarcane. On the occasion, a brief meeting was held on the mills premises. The meeting was presided over by Managing Director of the mills SM Abdul Aziz.
Ramesh Chandra Sen, MP, Yasin Ali, MP, Selina Jahan Lita, MP, Deputy Commissioner Mukesh Chandra Biswas, Administrator of Zila Parishad Sadeque Qureshi and others addressed the meeting.
After the meeting a milad and doa mahfil was also held.
A source at the mills said 5,800 tonnes of sugar is expected to be produced by crushing 80,000 tonnes of sugarcane in the current season. The target of sugar recovery is 7.25 per cent.