Karnataka : Sugarcane farmers urge factories to clear dues pending for the last two years
Karnataka Sugarcane Farmers Federation has demanded payment of pending dues from four sugar mills that crushed 68.8 lakh tonnes of cane from 55,417 growers in 2022–24. Farmers allege underpayment against FRP, excess deductions of ₹15.96 crore, and seek FRP revision to ₹5,000/tonne with recovery fixed at 8.5%.
Members of Karnataka Sugarcane Farmers Federation (KPSS) have sought release of dues for sugarcane supplied to various factories in the district for the last two years.
Federation district convener Sharanabasappa Mamshetty addressing presspersons here on Thursday said that the four sugar factories in the district, KPR Sugars, Renuka Sugars, Ugar Sugars and NSL Sugars, have crushed 68,87,650.68 tonnes of sugarcane belonging to 55,417 sugarcane growers during 2022-23 and 2023-24.
Mr. Mamshetty said that Renuka Sugars has paid ₹2,550 per tonne of sugarcane against the fixed Fair Remunerative Price (FRP) of ₹3,282 per tonne, while NSL Sugars in Aland taluk has paid ₹2,450 per tonne against the FRP of ₹3,018 per tonne. Meanwhile, Ugar Sugars in Jewargi taluk has paid ₹2,500 per tonne against the fixed FRP of ₹3,150 per tonne.
Mr. Mamshetty said that the factories have deducted ₹732 per tonne of sugarcane as harvesting and transportation charges against the fixed charge of ₹572. In this way, they have deducted an additional amount of ₹15.96 crore of 13,291 farmers in the district.
The federation has now sought the intervention of the district administration to get the pending dues of sugarcane growers cleared.
The federation members have urged the Centre to revise sugar recovery rate to 8.5% from 10.25% and demanded that the government form a committee to make a bilateral agreement between sugar factories and farmers and to fix an FRP of ₹5,000 per tonne at a recovery rate of 8.5%.
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Source : The Hindu
