Caught in the tussle between sugar mills and the Mayawati-led government in Uttar Pradesh over sugarcane price, farmers in the state are getting restive. There are about seven million politically active sugarcane farmers in the state, which is the country’s second largest sugar producing state.
On Monday, a sugarcane farmer at Khatauli in the Muzaffarnagar district died while staging a demonstration at the local sugarcane purchase society. Last Saturday, about 200 farmers gathered to protest at Delhi’s Ansal Plaza, where the headquarters of the Indian Sugar Mills Association is located. The agitation was led by Bhartiya Kisan Union’s Rajesh Tikait.
As the mills wait for the courts to give a judgement on the matter before they start crushing sugarcane, farmers, mostly in western Uttar Pradesh, are running out of time to harvest the crop before they sow wheat. Since the ideal sowing period is between mid-November and mid-December, any delay beyond this period is certain to result in a lower yield.
Uttar Pradesh is the country’s largest wheat producing state. Since sugarcane harvesting is yet to pick up, wheat planting in UP is lagging behind by 16 per cent to 1.21 million hectares as on November 21.
Sensing their desperation, gur and khandsari makers have started asking the farmers for discounts on the sugarcane they buy.
On October 18, the state government had declared the price of Rs 140 a quintal for sugarcane. Sugar mills, on their part, said they are not in a financial position to pay this rate. Last year, mills paid a rate of Rs 110 a quintal as decided by the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court, even though the state advised price was Rs 125 a quintal.
The industry has filed a writ petition at the Allahabad High Court against the price of Rs 140 a quintal declared by the UP government and a judgement is awaited. Industry sources have indicated that they will approach the Supreme Court if the high court’s decision is not favourable.
“Not even one-fourth of the 92 private sugar mills in the state have begun crushing. This is certainly a grim situation. By this time, most mills in Western Uttar Pradesh should have started. The building agitation among farmers could lead to law and order problems,” said industry sources.
Moreover, most of these mills have been stamping ‘subject to court order’ on the parchi (slip) that is being issued to the farmers against sugarcane supplies. A parchi is an acknowledgement given to farmers by mills mentioning the sugarcane supplied and the payment due. The state sugarcane commissioner on Monday issued instructions to the district magistrates to take strict action against mills who are stamping ‘subject to court order’ instead of mentioning the state advised price on the parchi.
