After protests by sugarcane farmers for non-payment of their dues, Maharashtra sugar commissioner Vijay Singhal has called sugar mills for a review meeting.

Over the next two days, mills from Kolhapur and Pune have been called for the meeting, Singhal said. Pune and Kolhapur account for 86 of the 154 sugar mills in the state that have started crushing operations for the 2013-14 season.

“While giving them permission for crushing it was made clear that the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) payment has to be made within 14 days of crushing. This was decided by the group of ministers and also accepted by the mills,” Singhal said. The FRP is the minimum sugarcane price legally guaranteed to be paid to farmers and was fixed at R190 per quintal for 2013-14. The FRP is also linked to a basic recovery rate of 9.5% and increases by R146 for every 0.1 percentage point increase in recovery above 9.5%.

Sugarcane farmers’ group Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS) had resumed its agitation against sugar mills to protest against their failure to pay the promised first installment of the cane price of R2,650 per tonne. Of this, FRP amou-nts to R2,000 to R2,200 depending on the recovery rate. The rest of the payment is linked with revenue realisation by the mill.

Raju Shetty, leader of the Sanghatana, led a protest on Wednesday in Satara to the district collectorate, demanding immediate payment of the first installment. “Mills are getting additional benefits because of the government package, so there was no reason to deny payment to farmers,” he said.

The Sanghatana will carry out protests in Manchar on January 8 and in Baramati on January 9 to spread the campaign across Maharashtra. Shetty said farmers will continue to supply cane to mills and not disrupt crushing. But he threatened to carry out blockages at mills if payments were not made.

Sugar mills started crushing in the first week of December after the SSS called off its agitation for higher cane prices.