Lucknow
Taking a tough posture on sugarcane arrears, the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government has issued recovery certificates (RCs) against five sugar mills operated by major groups including Bajaj Hindusthan, Modi, Simbhaoli etc.
While the 2020-21 sugarcane crushing season has ended, the state sugar mills, mostly belonging to the private sector — 94 in number —, still owe nearly Rs 8,000 crore in arrears, according to sources. RuralVoice has done a detailed story on this only recently. You may access it on https://eng.ruralvoice.in/state/UP-sugar-mills-owe-about-Rs-8000-crore-to-cane-farmers.html
In the RC order issued by the UP cane and sugar commissioner Sanjay Bhoosreddy, the concerned district administration will be able to recover the cane price payment as land revenues, which will be used to settle the farmers’ dues. The action was taken after the defaulting mills failed to pay farmers despite repeated warnings.
“The cane price payment is being reviewed regularly and in view of the apathy towards payment by the five sugar mills, RCs have been issued against them. Strict action will be taken against the mills who will not comply with the instructions,” he warned.
Against the backdrop of the ongoing farm stir and the protesting farmers highlighting the issues of sugarcane arrears and procurement of foodgrains, the UP government is taking steps to ensure that in the run-up to the 2022 state assembly elections, the arrears issue does not snowball.
Bhoosreddy claimed that farmers’ cane price payment was the top priority of the department. And a daily review of the payment situation was being done at the headquarters and district levels.
“Instructions have been issued to ensure speedy cane price payment, and 22 sugar mills of the state have settled 100 per cent cane dues for the crushing season 2020-21, while 40 mills have made more than 80 per cent payment (of which 27 mills have made over 90 per cent settlements),” he informed.
UP, the major sugar producer of India, had logged about 11 million tonnes (MT) of sugar output in the current 2020-21 (Oct-Sep) season, which is nearly a third of the 3.1 MT of the country’s consolidated production.
In the coming 2021-22 season, the state is estimated to have a sugarcane area of 2.3 million hectares (MH), according to the preliminary projections by the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) based on satellite images of the cultivated area taken in June 2021.
(Virendra Singh Rawat is a Lucknow-based financial journalist.)