Farmers lock gates of sugar mill in Phagwara over non-clearance of dues
Farmers’ body Bharti Kisan Union (Doaba) on Wednesday locked the gates of a sugar mill here in protest against the delay in the payment of ₹42 crore of dues to sugarcane growers.
The farmers also started an indefinite dharma in front of the gate of the mill situated on the Ludhiana-Jalandhar national highway.
BKU (D) president Manjit Singh Rai said despite repeated representations to the Kapurthala deputy commissioner and other senior officials, the payments have not been cleared.
“No concrete efforts have been made to force the mill management to clear outstanding dues. We will lift our protest only after the farmers are paid their dues,” he said.
The outfit’s general secretary Satnam Singh Sahni accused the district administration of dilly-dallying on the issue of auctioning the properties of the mill owners.
The protesting farmers demanded the registration of a cheating case against the mill owner.
On August 21, taking note of the non-payment of dues to sugarcane growers by Wahid-Sandhar Sugar Mills, the district administration issued a notice to the mill to vacate the properties attached by the office of SDM, Phagwara, in 2021.
The notice stipulated that the auction process of these properties will initiated shortly so that the said properties measuring 10 kanal 12 marlas and 07 kanal 06 marlas, including a kothi should be vacated at the earliest.
On September 17, a seven-member price fixation committee under deputy commissioner Captain Karnail Singh was constituted to initiate the process of auctioning.
Kapurthala DC said Punjab agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian has called some sugarcane farmers for a meeting on Thursday regarding this matter.
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