Bitter HC pill for sugar unit
Observing that instances of farmers' suicides have increased to an alarming extent, the Bombay High Court on Friday said it was high time to teach a lesson to 'influential persons and politicians' controlling sugarcane factories in Maharashtra.
The High Court has accordingly ordered the Beed Police to register an FIR against a sugarcane factory, which failed to pay the Fixed Reserved Price (FRP) to farmers in the district within the mandatory period.
A bench of Justices Tanaji Nalawade said it was 'unfortunate' but a fact that most of the factories in Maharashtra were not paying FRP to farmers, who are often at the mercy of sugar factories, as they have no choice but to to supply sugarcane to the nearest factory.
“This problem of sugarcane growers is used by the persons in the management of the sugar factories and the farmers are virtually exploited,” the bench said.
The bench further said that the FRP is never paid within the time frame of 14 days, in most of the cases.
“The farmers face all kinds of problems due to such late payment of FRP and nonpayment of interest on the due amount. They cannot repay the loan taken from the banks and due to their inability they do not get fresh loans for subsequent crop seasons,” the bench said.
“Due to these circumstances, the incidence of the suicide of farmers has increased to an alarming extent,” Justice Nalawade said in his orders.
The judges further noted that these illegalities of the sugarcane factory owners are known to the Sugar Commissioner and also the police. However, none bothers to initiate action, they noted. “This is mainly because the factory owners or the persons managing the factories are influential persons and most of them are in politics,” Justice Nalawade said.
The bench was dealing with a plea filed by a farmer accusing the NSL Sugar Ltd. of not paying them the FRP for the crushing season 2018-2019, despite filing a complaint in April 2019. However, the police did not register an FIR against the chairman of the factory as it was informed that the farmer was paid by September 2019.
Taking note of the same, Justice Nalawade said, “In the present matter, it can be seen the police has tried to shirk its responsibility by filing a report stating that the farmers have been paid, though late.
On the basis of such a police report or the payment of FRP, after so many months, the things cannot be closed. They (factory owners) need to learn a lesson, otherwise these things will be repeated and this can be seen from the incidents of previous years.”
The bench ordered the Superintendent of Police, Beed to register an FIR against the factory owners under the provisions of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955.
Till mid-January, sugar mills in Maharashtra had paid 58.53 per cent of the total Rs 1,771.82 crore FRP dues owed to farmers, for the season 2019-20. Arrears worth Rs 735.93 crore are yet to be paid.