The Uttarakhand government seems to be in no mood to increase the price of Rs 215-220 per quintal for sugarcane despite a hefty increase by private sugar mills.
The government faced an unsavoury situation when Udhamsingh Nagar DM M C Upreti further increased the sugarcane price by Rs 20 from Rs 215-220 without the approval of the government.
An enraged Principal Secretary, Sugarcane, Amrendra Sinha has now sought action against Upreti for not taking the government into confidence. In a letter, Sinha said the increase of sugarcane price by Rs 20 had put extra burden on the sugarmills, which would now face losses.
After the prolonged agitation, farmers have now started getting the price of Rs 270-275 from private sugar mills in Haridwar district.
In the first week of December, the government announced the state advised price (SAP) of Rs 192-197 at a time when farmers were agitating for a price of Rs 250. But soon, the private mills began paying heavy bonuses to farmers in the face of acute shortfall in a desperate bid to keep the factories running. The government too decided to give bonus with a final price of Rs 215-220.
Meanwhile, farmers started building renewed pressure on the government to pay the sugarcane price at par with the private mills. Following this, the Udhamsingh Nagar DM increased the price further by Rs 20. “Any decision to increase the sugarcane price has to be taken at the highest level,” a state government official said.
Uttarakhand is expecting a shortfall of sugarcane since the cane acreage had come down to 93,000 hectares from last year’s 99,000 hectares. The state is also expecting sugarcane production of around 51.1 million quintals this year against last year’s 63 million quintals. Last year, most of the sugar mills closed their crushing season ahead of the scheduled time.