As mills fail to start crushing cane, govt sets up committee to look into demands
The state government on Monday set up a committee headed by chief secretary Karan Avtar Singh to look into the demands of sugar mill owners who have not started crushing cane in the current season saying that the business was not viable.
The mills owners are demanding from the government to pay ₹35 per quintal extra, which is the gap between fair remunerative price (FRP) of ₹275 per quintal on sugarcane fixed by the Centre and state advice price (SAP) of ₹310 fixed by the state government. The mill owners are supposed to pay farmers as per the SAP and they claimed that it was not viable to crush sugarcane on this price demanding to bring it on a par with the FRP or the government should compensate them.
Additional chief secretary (development) Vishwajeet Khanna and principal secretary finance Anirudh Tiwari are also members of the committee which will give its report to chief minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday.
Khanna said the government was considerate to the demands of sugar mill owners and will watch their interests. He added the government has two concerns – the mills should start crushing cane and pay arrears due to the farmers. The mills owe ₹201 crore to the farmers.
Farmers, who are expecting bumper crop this season, are also demanding an increase of ₹40 per quintal in SAP.
“The meeting ended on a positive note,” said Jarnail Singh Wahid, president of private sugar mills association. There are seven private mills in the state which crush 70% of the total sugarcane produced in the state. The total compensation to be paid to mills to cover ₹35 per quintal gap is around ₹500 crore.
AAP DELEGATION TO MEET GUV
Leader of opposition Harpal Cheema said a delegation of party leaders would meet the governor VP Singh Badmore on Tuesday with the demand that private sugar mills should be directed to pay SAP of ₹310 per quintal to farmers. “The Congress government has surrendered before the private sugar mills lobby. These mills are owned either by politicians or influential persons,” he said, demanding an increase in SAP to ₹350 per quintal.