DC sets Friday deadline for clearing pending bills of sugarcane growers
Bagalkot Deputy Commissioner KM Janaki has ordered sugar factories to clear pending bills of sugarcane farmers for the 2024-25 season by Friday evening. She warned factory owners and tahsildars of strict action for delays or failure to report payment statuses. Twelve factories reportedly owe farmers, with five seeking court relief. Officials also raised concerns about factories evading land tax.
Bagalkot: Deputy commissioner KM Janaki has set Friday as the deadline for sugar factories in the district for clearing the pending bills of sugarcane farmers who have supplied the cane for 2024-2025 season.
Chairing a meeting with sugar factory owners and managing directors here, she said the factory managers were not informing the district administration and sugar commissioner about the pending bills and the payments already made for the purchase of sugarcane. She took exception to the fact that even the farmers were not properly informed about the payment status.
When the sugar factories representatives sought time for clearing the bills, the DC refused to give any extra time and asserted that the arrears should be paid latest by Friday evening. She also directed the tahsildars to keep the district administration updated about the payment status.
DC Janaki was informed that 12 sugar factories in the district had kept the farmers’ bills pending. Of these five have approached the high court seeking time to clear the arrears. DC Janaki told the factories that farmers were in distress and their problems were more serious than those of the sugar factories and refused to give any extension to clear the bills.
The DC took tahsildars of the taluks concerned to task for not initiating the process to recover the land revenue from factories and failing to inform the administration about the status of payment of bills, despite being ordered. She directed her office to issue notices to these tahsildars and set a deadline of two days for them to comply with her instructions. She warned of action against the tahsildars not complying with instructions.
ZP CEO Shashidhar Kurer complained that the sugar factories coming under GP limits were not paying the land tax properly. They are neither cooperating with the GP staff when the latter come for measurement of the land and building, he charged. He warned the sugar factories of action if they did not cooperate for the measurement process.
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Source : The Times Of India
