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Even as the stand-off between the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government and private sugar mills on the cane pricing continues, the cane department on Wednesday announced dates for the annual cane reservation meetings next month.
These come before the crushing season and are used to allocate cane areas to mills on the basis of demand.
But the mills had told the government about the suspension of operations in the coming season till the resolution of demands, including the linking of cane price to sugar one.
These meetings are attended by representatives of mills and cane societies.
According to the schedule, the meetings for the Saharanpur would be on September 10; Faizabad and Devipatan, September 11; Meerut September 12; Moradabad, September 13; Gorakhpur, September 15; Bareilly, September 16; Deoria, September 18; and Lucknow, September 19.
A sugar sector official said the mills would not participate in these. Last year, the mills' representatives did not turn up due to pending demands. But the matter was resolved and the mills had agreed to start crushing on assurances by the state, including evolving a permanent cane-pricing formula.
Under the law, if mills fail to provide their cane demands, the government has the power to allocate cane area based on the previous year's demand.
Kisan Jagriti Manch president Sudhir Panwar told Business Standard that the government was right in continuing with the meetings even in the face of boycott by mills.
"I am confident that the issues would be sorted out in time before the start of the crushing season. The boycott of cane meetings is actually a tactic of mills to pressurise the government against any increase in cane price this year," he noted.
Last year, the government had retained the cane price of Rs 280 a quintal. Panwar claimed that at this level, it would be a losing proposition for farmers due to the effect of drought and inflation, which had increased farm input costs.
The mills say successive high-cane prices in UP had hit the sugar sector, resulting in massive accumulated losses, besides cane arrears. The private mills are currently burdened with arrears worth about Rs 5,000-crore for the 2013-14 crushing season.
The Allahabad High Court is currently hearing a case pertaining to arrears; the next date of hearing is September 3, 2014.
Last year, 119 mills (95 private mills, 23 cooperatives, one corporation) had collectively crushed 69.78 million tonnes (mt) of cane and produced 6.47 mt of sugar. The recovery percentage had stood at 9.27 per cent.
UP's sugar economy is estimated at Rs 30,000 crore, including procurement of cane by mills; unorganised 'khandsari' (unpolished sugar) and gur (jaggery) units; and local sales.
