Cane growers await dues to tune of ₹664 cr in Punjab

The prolonged delay in payments has forced cane growers to take to streets, say it’s the same situation every year

CHANDIGARH: Even as the crushing season ended in April, sugarcane growers are still waiting for the dues, which run up to around Rs 664.73 crore, from 16 sugar mills in Punjab.

The prolonged delay has forced the cane growers to take to streets and protest for the release of their dues.

Out of 16 mills, seven are privately owned and owe a sum of Rs 343.48 crore. Nine are managed by the state government in the cooperative sector and owe farmers a sum of Rs. 321.31 crore.

In the crushing season, 6.4 crore quintals of sugarcane was crushed, out of which 59 lakh tonne of sugar was produced. In the last season, sugarcane was cultivated over 1.10 lakh hectare area.

The state government pays a state advised price (SAP) of Rs. 360 per quintal for early maturing varieties and Rs 350 a quintal for late maturing cane. Out of total SAP paid to the farmers by the private mills, the state government contributes Rs 35 a quintal.

It is pertinent to mention that for non-payment of farmers’ dues, for the past three seasons, the state government has started a process to attach properties of the Phagwara sugarmill owned by WahidSandhar group. Unlike other mills in the private sector, Phagwara mill owes about Rs 76 crore to farmers for the past three seasons.

A top-level officer in the agriculture department, on condition of anonymity, revealed that the department was pushing the private mills to release payment. “We are sending private mill owners notices to release the payments,” he added.

The agriculture department is also in the process of sending recovery notices to two other mills in the private sector at Dhuri and Mukerian (both owned by sugar baron DP Yadav) to expedite the payment process. The government has also constituted a committee under divisional commissioner, Jalandhar, to deal with the recovery of payments.

“It is the same story every year; we have to struggle every year to get our payments released. Farmers are protesting against the mills seeking release of the payment,” said Sukhwinder Singh of Bhattian village, adding that farmers are already struggling and nonpayment is adding to our woes.

He added that the entire year was bad for the farmers -wheat production fell down, maize is also turning out to be a bad crop and potatoes did not sell at a price par with the input cost. “Governments from time to time have been preaching diversification but farmers are suffering on every account,” he further said.

The mills in the cooperative sector are controlled by the state’s cooperation department. According to a top officer, the department is making arrangement for Rs. 70-80 crore on its own and for the rest, it has written to the finance department.

“We are hopeful of disbursing the payment to farmers by the upcoming week,” the officer informed.