The opposition today staged a walkout in the UP assembly over the issue of non-payment of dues of cane farmers and blamed the Samajwadi Party government for being "non-serious" towards their plight.
Giving a reply during the Question Hour, Minister of State for Sugarcane Development, Ram Karan Arya said, "Of total Rs 1622.33 crore dues on private mills till December 2015, only Rs 741 crore was left till February 2, 2016. While state cooperative mills have made hundred per cent payments, these payments were of 2014-15 crushing season".
He said that for the crushing season 2015-16 cane dues of Rs 2981.22 crore was pending while attempts were underway to ensure full payment to farmers.
Alleging that the government was not "serious" in ensuring payment to cane farmers, BJP and Congress staged a walkout.
Leader of Opposition Swami Prasad Maurya (BSP) said that the government was "cheating" farmers in the name of payments and staged a walkout with party members raising slogans, "Kisan Hatyari ye sarkari" (The government is farmers' killer).
RLD members also raised the matter of non-payments, saying the government was "shielding" mill owners and trooped into the Well of the House.
They wanted action against a particular mill owner of western UP.
Later, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mohd Azam Khan said as per the recent High Court orders, "we (government) cannot send mill owners to jail and harass them."
He said that the government was trying its best to ensure payment of cane dues but "it could not open payment counters in the House".
