LUCKNOW: The deadlock between the Samajwadi Party government and the sugar mill owners over sugarcane prices continues with neither side ready to blink. A day after the meeting with mill owners, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav also met a delegation of sugarcane farmers and assured them the government would protect their interests.

Sources said the CM expected a compromise by Tuesday when he meets the representatives of the sugatr mill owners again.

The farmers had decided to stage a protest and burn their sugarcane crops outside the state assembly in Lucknow. However, the chief minister persuaded them to put off their agitation as the government was keen on a solution. The Bharatiya Kisan Union, the umbrella body of farmers, has planned a protest in Meerut on November 27.

In western UP, the farmers have already resorted to distress sale of their crop as a result of the delay in crushing by private millers. Though the government had asked the cooperative mills to start crushing, their capacity is well below the output. The private mills refused to abide by the government order of starting the process of crushing by Monday.

During Sunday's meeting with the CM, the sugar mill owners demanded that prices should be determined as per the Rangarajan Committee formula — at 75% of the sugar price realization by mills in order to get rid of the arbitrariness of sugarcane prices. The mills have also demanded a lowering or removal of entry tax on sugar.

The Samajwadi Party government finds itself caught in a 'catch-22' situation as general elections draw near as the party can ill-afford to antagonize the farmer or the sugar millers, who are part of the state's biggest industry. So far, while state government sources have confirmed that the state has refused to pay subsidies to the mills — to absorb their losses — they have also not taking any punitive action against the mills, despite threatening to do so repeatedly.

So far, there is no agreement on the current sugar prices and the paying capacity of mill owners on one hand and the need to pay remunerative prices to the farmers.