Farmers protest outside sugar mill in Phagwara over ₹27-cr dues
Farmers under the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Doaba) protested at Phagwara sugar mill, demanding the release of ₹27 crore in dues pending for three years. Despite repeated requests to officials, no action has been taken. The union threatened to continue the protest until payments are cleared, urging the government to auction the mill’s properties.
Farmers under the banner of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Doaba) staged a protest outside Phagwara sugar mill seeking immediate release of ₹27-crore dues.
The farmers also put a lock on the sugar mill situated on the Ludhiana-Jalandhar national highway claiming that their pending payments have not been cleared for the past three years.
Manjit Singh Rai, president of the union, said despite repeated representations to the Kapurthala deputy commissioner and other senior officials, there payments have not been cleared.
“Moreover, no concrete efforts have been made to force the mill management to clear the outstanding dues. We will lift our protest only after the farmers receive their dues,” he said.
He said they wanted the government to auction the properties of the mill attached by the office of the SDM, Phagwara, in 2021.
“The administration repeatedly told us that the auction process of these properties would be initiated to make payments to the farmers, but nothing had happened in past years,” he said.
Meanwhile, the farmers lifted the protest after locking the gate of the sugar mill.
In September last year, the vigilance bureau (VB) had arrested former managing director of the mill Jarnail Singh Wahid, along with his wife and son in a case pertaining to non-payment of farmers’ dues to the tune of ₹42 crore and falsely using government land for financial gains.
The VB has also registered a case against 13 persons, including tehsildar and naib tehsildar, for allegedly colluding with mill functionaries for preparing faulty revenue deals in order to use mill property and land for financial benefits.
Wahid, a former chairman of Punjab Markfed, remained associated as the managing director with the Golden Sandhar Sugar Mill, previously known as Wahid-Sandhar Sugar mill, in Phagwara.
Moreover, an FIR was registered under several sections of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act against Wahid and others for allegedly misusing and mortgaging 31.2 acres given on lease by the state government.
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