BIJNOR: With the starting of sugarcane crushing season, three sugar mills in Bijnor paid an amount of Rs 52 crore to farmers through bank accounts on Tuesday alone. The payments made for the current season hint at a good sugar market this year. However, though the sugar mills have paid cane dues timely this year, farmers will still have to stand in queues at the banks to withdraw that money. District sugarcane officer OP Singh said, "Twelve days after sugar mills started crushing cane, fresh sugarcane dues of Rs 52 crore were paid off to farmers on Tuesday morning. Of these, Dhampur sugar mill has paid off Rs 26 crore, Bundki Rs 12 crore and Afzalgarh mill Rs 14 crore. It is a good sign for the farmers as this year sugar factories may pay off their dues on time. The amount is being transferred into the farmers' bank accounts."
One of the reasons for the timely payment is the sudden spurt in sugar prices in the wholesale market. As against last year's Rs 2700-2800 per quintal, the prices this year have jumped to Rs 3,800 per quintal. Besides, the state government has also revised the state advisory prices from Rs 290 per quintal to Rs 315 per quintal.
Rajpal Singh, a sugarcane farmer in Kambhaur village, said, "It is a positive sign for the farmers that sugar mills have started making payment to them. However, we are unable to withdraw that amount as banks have long queues."
Sugarcane arrears is a major problem for the farmers as well as the industry. Though they arrears have come down significantly compared to that a year ago, sugar mills have to yet pay Rs 4,000 crore to the farmers across the country, more than half of it to farmers from UP. Most of the dues of UP farmers involve some big but sick sugar mills and there is government pressure to clear the outstanding arrears of Rs 2,100 crore.
Uttar Pradesh sugarcane arrears for the 2015-16 crushing season stand at Rs 1,736 crore even as the state government has warned the defaulting private sugar mills of strict action in days to come. Against the total payables of over Rs 18,000 crore pertaining to farmers' dues, the combined payment by the total 117 mills in UP stood at a little over Rs 16,266 crore, putting the payment percentage at 90.35%. Of the 117 mills, 78 mills had paid in full the requisite sugarcane State Advised Price (SAP). This includes all 24 cooperative mills and one UP State Sugarcane Corporation Limited (UPPSCL) unit in the state.
Earlier, FIRs had been lodged against big defaulters belonging to the Modi, Mawana, Simbhaoli and Rana groups under Section 3/7 of the Essential Commodities Act 1955. The state police had even raided the premises of the promoters of these groups, but they managed to evade arrest.