Former Punjab Chief Minister and Amritsar MP Amarinder Singh today warned the Akali Dal-BJP government against any "undue and unwarranted delay" in payment to sugarcane farmers by the state-owned sugar mills.
Singh claimed that the state-owned mills owed about Rs 250 crore to sugarcane growers and the amount had been pending for a long time.
Asking the government to set a deadline for releasing the payment to farmers, he said otherwise his Congress party will launch a state-wide agitation.
Singh, in a statement, said while the state government is asking farmers to go for diversification and grow alternate crops like sugarcane, it has failed to pay for their produce on time.
He said there are thousands of sugarcane growers in the state, who were awaiting payment from the government. He expressed surprise as to how a government claiming itself to be the guardian of farmers' interests was letting them down.
He hoped that the government would make payment to the farmers in a time bound manner so that they are not forced to come on roads, and in case that happens the Congress will launch protests all over the state.
