Four sugar firms on UP govt's radar for not clearing cane dues to farmers

Recovery certificates to the groups, strict action against them on the cards

The Uttar Pradesh government is keeping a close watch on four sugar groups -- Bajaj Hindustan, Modi, Simbhaoli and Yadus -- which have been laggards in clearing the cane payments to farmers and won’t hesitate to take strict action against them, state sugar minister Suresh Rana said on Thursday.

Less than Rs 10,000 crore cane dues are yet to be cleared by mills in the state in the ongoing 2020-21 sugar season (October-September), with much of it belonging to these groups, he said.

Several measures were taken by the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh to ensure mills make cane payment to farmers on time.

As a result, the entire cane payment of about Rs 1,37,518 crore carried over from the last three seasons was cleared to farmers, he added.

"We have issued recovery certificates to these groups. Upon direction from the CM, we are keeping a close watch on these groups, be it Modi, Simabholi and Bajaj Hindustan. We are taking regular action against them," Rana told reporters in a meeting.

UP is the country’s largest sugar producing states, accounting for almost 47 per cent of total country’s production.

Largely dominated by the private sector, the sugar sector in UP is one the biggest organised industries and is a main source of livelihood for almost 6.6 million farmers of the state.

There are 120 sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh, of which 21 mills belong to the four sugar groups, which are laggards in clearing cane dues, according to the state government.

Rana said in 2020-21 around 60 per cent of the sugarcane arrears accruing to farmers have been cleared so far while 100 per cent payment has been made to all the farmers who supplied cane to 112 operational sugar mills in the state for the previous 2018-19 and 2019-20 sugar seasons.

On the vexed question of zero increase in state-advised price (SAP) of sugarcane for the four consecutive years despite steep rise in inputs cost for the farmers, Rana said the focus of the Yogi Adityanath government has been to instead ensure timely payment of sugarcane price and lower the cost of input instead of just hiking SAP, without ensuring that farmers are benefited.

“When we (BJP government), assumed office in 2016-17, around Rs 10,000 crore was unpaid as sugarcane dues from previous years, we first got that previous years’ dues cleared and thereafter have tried to ensure that farmers don’t have to wait for years to get the price of the sugarcane sold by them,” Rana said.

He said unlike the previous BSP and SP regimes which ran from 2007-2017 wherein nearly 30 sugar mills were closed and 21 were sold-off to private parties, not a single sugar mill has closed down in the last four years of Yogi Adityanath government.

“Instead we have started three new sugars, upgraded the operations of a few others,” Rana claimed.

On the impact of the ongoing agitation by farmers on the state’s sugarcane sector, Rana said the fact that thousands of farmers come daily to the sugarcane centres to sell their produce and participate in the procurement of wheat and paddy shows that farmers of UP and India have faith in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.