Yogi govt files 28 FIRs against sugarcane mafia in crushing season

UP sugar output at 11.5 million tonnes, arrears top Rs 115 billion

Cracking the whip against unscrupulous elements duping sugarcane farmers in Uttar Pradesh, the Yogi Adityanath government has filed 28 First Information Reports (FIR) against ‘sugarcane mafia’ in the ongoing crushing season.

Sugarcane mafia refers to middlemen who register as farmers with sugarcane societies. During the crushing season, they procure the crop from farmers at cheaper rates by making on the spot payment to sell it at the much higher government determined state advised price (SAP).

While 28 FIRs have been lodged by the sugarcane department against sugarcane mafia, 15 other cases have also been lodged over under-weighing of sugarcane at purchase centres. Therefore, total 43 FIRs have been lodged by the department as the crushing operations are still on.

According to the state cane commissioner Sanjay Bhoosreddy, an extensive drive had been launched at the start of the crushing season last year to weed out unscrupulous elements operating in the sugarcane purchase and supply chain in UP, the country’s largest sugar and sugarcane producer.

The special vigilance teams had conducted about 19,800 on the spot inspections of the different purchase centres. These squads detected around 1500 irregularities and later 43 FIRs in all were lodged. The licenses of 171 weighing clerks were also suspended for alleged complicity in such cases. The department also confiscated 600 tonnes of illegally purchased sugarcane stock.

With Lok Sabha elections due in early 2019 and ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government targetting doubling the farm income by 2022, the sugarcane sector forms a vital cog in the wheel, considering the sector generates direct annual economy of over Rs 400 billion and impacts over 4 million farmers’ households.

Earlier, Bhoosreddy had warned sugar mills against under weighing of sugarcane at mill gate and said action would also be taken against weighbridge manufacturers, software providers and companies engaged in the annual maintenance contract (AMC) in such cases.

Meanwhile, in the ongoing crushing season 2017-18, the state sugarcane production has already breached the level of 11.50 million tonnes (MT), while arrears have also touched a high of Rs 116 billion.

With 68 of the total 119 mills still operational, the farmers’ outstanding is likely to rise by the end of the crushing season over the next 1-2 weeks. Ensuring timely cane payments was one of the topmost pre-poll promises of the BJP.

The Adityanath government had recently announced to revive the rurally based gur (jaggery) and khandsari (raw and unrefined sugar) units to insulate the sector from its cyclical nature and to break the monopoly of sugar companies.

The domestic sugar sector bogged down by glut and falling prices is looking at the emerging global factors to recover in the next season, including rising crude prices which is likely to encourage Brazil divert 3-5 MT of sugar towards ethanol production.