Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 16
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today set a month’s deadline for the states of Punjab and Haryana to make full and final payment to sugarcane farmers.
A Division Bench of the High Court also made it clear that the payment should go directly into farmers’ bank accounts.
The Bench headed by Justice Satish Kumar Mittal passed the orders while hearing a petition filed against delay in payment to sugarcane farmers in both the states.
As the case came up for resumed hearing, counsels for the states of Punjab and Haryana submitted that the cooperative sugar mills in their jurisdiction had made full and final payment to the farmers.
The counsel for the state of Punjab claimed only six private mills were yet to pay about Rs 200 crore to the farmers and the state was in process of providing soft loans to the mills so that final payment could be made to farmers.
The Haryana government also claimed that a private sugar mill was yet to pay Rs 48 crore to the farmers. The court was told that the government had tried to provide soft loans to the mill owners, but had failed to furnish requisite security for the loan amount.
The Central government counsel added it had specially made the provision of Rs 6,000 crore for payment to sugarcane farmers across the country.
The Centre also informed the High Court that the payment to sugarcane farmers would be made directly into their account by mills to avoid irregularities or misappropriation of funds. It was also claimed that a waiver of 10 per cent interest would be made by the Centre, if the sugar mills received loan from banks before September 30.
The development is significant as sugarcane sale is fast losing sugariness for the farmers in Punjab and Haryana. In a shocking revelation, the Punjab Government had earlier admitted before the High Court that Rs 294.38 crore was yet to be paid to the farmers by nine cooperative sugar mills. Another Rs 393.05 crore was to be paid by seven private sugar mills to the farmers.
Punjab state's initial stand was that efforts would be made to pay the dues within four months. However, the Bench had asserted the period fixed by the state government was unacceptable, particularly when the payment was to be made within 14 days of sugarcane delivery by the farmers to the sugar mills or agents.