Chandigarh, November 27
The Punjab Cabinet today decided to hike the State Agreed Price (SAP) of sugarcane by Rs 10 per quintal for the crushing season 2017-18.
Rejecting the hike as meagre, Balbir Singh Rajewal, president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, said it was a joke with the farmers. “If other states can give Rs 330 and Rs 325 per quintal as SAP, why not Punjab,” he said.
However, the government said despite the poor fiscal condition of the state, it had been decided to give the hike in interest of the cane growers. Today’s decision to hike the SAP followed detailed parleys between the Cabinet sub-committee, headed by Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, and the representatives of various sugarcane grower unions and associations from across the state, who met here this morning at Kisan Bhawan.
Earlier, the cane growers of the state had announced to gherao the state Assembly on the opening day of the winter session. The farmers have been lamenting that the spiralling price of sugar had failed to give any benefit to cane growers in the state.
For the fourth year in a row, cane growers are getting Rs 285 to Rs 300 per quintal. The Council of Ministers decided to hike the SAP from Rs 300 to Rs 310 for the early variety, Rs 290 to Rs 300 for the mid variety and Rs 285 to Rs 295 per quintal for the late variety.
The government said the hike was in line with the increase given by Uttar Pradesh and Haryana and put an additional burden of Rs 20 crore on the state exchequer.
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