The Uttar Pradesh government has written to the owners of all those sugar mills which have been defaulting in cane payments to be personally present for a meeting to be held by state cane minister Suresh Rana on April 12 to explain as to why they have not been clearing up sugar arrears.
Cane commissioner Vipin Kumar Dwivedi has written a letter on April 8 to 20 sugar mill owners, out of which 10 are large groups having more than one factory and 10 have single mill in the state. The large groups include Bajaj, Modi, Simbhaoli, Yadu, Mawana, Uttam, Rana, Wave, Indian Potash Limited and the Birla groups.
Single mill owners who have been summoned include those of Aira, Nawabganj, Shamli, Captainganj, Agwanpur, Seohari, Gadaura and Motinagar units.
Apart from these owners of Baghauli sugar mill have also been summoned for the non-payment of the mill’s 2014-15 dues, while the owner of Baheri sugar mill has been asked to explain the non-payment of the mill’s 2015-16 dues.
“As you are aware, timely payment of cane dues is one of the foremost priorities of the state government and it is also a prominent point in the government’s Lok Kalyan Sankalp Patra (election manifesto). Yet, despite this, your sugar mills have piled up cane arrears in the sugar season 2016-17.
The chief minister has set a deadline of April 23 for all sugar mills to clear the cane dues payable to the farmers within 14 days of purchasing sugarcane. For this, the cane minister has called a meeting on April 12 to take stock of the latest payment position and discuss the roadmap for future plan of payment. The meeting will be attended by mill owners and you are requested to be present with all the details,” the Cane Commissioner’s latter states.
Giving details of the outstanding dues of the current sugar season 2016—17, the cane commissioner’s office states that while the Modi group’s two sugar mills have cane dues amounting to `394.41 crores, the Simbhaoli group’s three sugar mills have dues of `399.83 crores, Bajaj’s 15 sugar mills have dues of `2314.42 crores, Yadu group’s two mills have arrears of `52.75 crores, Mawana’s three mills have `277.32 crores, Uttam group’s three mills have `110.84 crores, Rana’s 4 mills have outstanding dues of `69.53 crores, Wave industries’ 3 mills have `5.17 crores, IPL’s 5 mills have dues of `Rs 6.40 crores while the Birla group’s 4 mills have `Rs 36.51 crores dues pending against it.