Four months on sugarcane growers await their dues in Punjab
Cane growers in Punjab are still awaiting their dues, with mills owing a total of ₹190 crore. The government and privately owned mills owe ₹150 crore to the growers, of which only ₹25 crore has been disbursed so far. The delays have led to protests by farmers, with some mills being forced to sell properties to clear their dues. The government has set aside a budget of ₹2,000 crore to pay the growers, with a total of ₹2,600 crore expected to be paid out in the current season.
Four months on, the cane growers in the state are still awaiting their dues. As per reports, the mills owe a sum of ₹190 crore and out of the ₹40 crore are pending from the previous crushing seasons.
There are 15 mills functional in the state, out of which nine are cooperative, while six are privately owned. The current crushing season started in November last year, and almost 50% of the cane has been processed.
This year cane was sown over 84,000 hectares (2.05 lakh acres), and according to figures from the agriculture department cane over 40,000 hectares have been harvested.
The government-owned and privately owned mills owe ₹150 crore to the cane growers, and to date, only a sum of ₹25 crore has been disbursed to the farmers.
According to Manjit Singh Rai, who heads Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU), Doaba, among the privately owned mills, the ones situated in Phagwara and Dhuri owe farmers ₹33 crore and ₹8 crore, respectively.
“The privately-owned sugar mill in Dhuri owes farmers ₹13 crore. The mill recently released ₹5 crore and now ₹8 crore pending, while the money owned by Golden Sandhar Sugar Mill, previously known as Wahid-Sandhar Sugar Mill in Phagwara is for the previous four crushing seasons,” he said.
In September last year, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau had arrested mills managing director Jarnail Singh Wahid, his wife Rupinder Kaur and son Sandeep Singh in a case pertaining to non-payment of farmers’ dues to the farmers.
One of the cane growers Harjinder Singh, who hails from Samrala, said the government makes payment every 15 days and only one instalment has been paid to date since the crushing started in November last year.
In December last year, Punjab had hiked the state-agreed price (SAP) of sugarcane by ₹11 ( from ₹ 380 to ₹391 per quintal) for the 2023-24 cane-crushing season, even as the farmers were demanding SAP of ₹450.
Out of the total SAP, ₹55.50 per quintal is borne by the government particularly for the private sugar mills and for mills in the cooperative sector the government support 100% of payments.
Cane commissioner Rakesh Raheja acknowledged the delays and said Dhuri mill will clear the dues within this week.
“We have started the process to clear payments of Phagwara mill by selling its properties via auction,” Raheja said.
Raheja further said the government has disbursed some payments to the farmers and has kept a budgetary provision of ₹2,000 crore. “A total of ₹2,600 crore would be paid to the sugarcane growers in the current season,” he said.
Source Link: https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/chandigarh-news/four-months-on-sugarcane-growers-await-their-dues-in-punjab-101707158670832.html
Recommended for you
