UP millers, govt meet today to end cane pricing impasse

Akhilesh Yadav to meet mills' owners

The deadlock between the UP government and sugar mills continued, after the mill owners refused to start crushing operations as they were unhappy with the state advisory price (SAP) of Rs 280 a quintal for sugar cane in 2013-14. Mill owners maintained they could not pay more than Rs 225 a quintal this year.

However, sources close to the state government said the impasse was likely to end on Tuesday, as another round of talks between Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and representatives of sugar mills are slated for Tuesday. The last meeting with the chief minister, however, remained inconclusive.

“Since the gridlock could not be broken (in the last meeting), another meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday,” an official told  Business Standard on conditions of anonymity.

On November 20, the state government had retained SAP of cane at Rs 280 a quintal for the current season, much to the disappointment of both the industry and farmers who had been demanding almost Rs 350 a quintal.

Those who met the CM included Kushagra Bajaj of Bajaj Hindusthan, Vivek Saraogi of Balrampur Chini, Ajit Shriram of DSCL, C S Nopany of Birla Group, Tarun Sawhney of Triveni, and Raj Kumar Adlakha of Uttam Sugar. Of the 123 total mills in UP, about 99 are run by private companies.

On November 11, Yadav had directed mills in western UP to start crushing by Monday (November 25) under “any circumstances”, while rest of the mills were to start by month- end. Later on November 19 and 20, about 75 mills informed the government about suspension of crushing operations due to “unviable conditions”.

Although the deadline for western UP mills expired on Monday, the government is unlikely to act against them.

Meanwhile, a delegation of Bharatiya Kisan Union met Yadav, demanding clearance of dues amounting to Rs 2,400 crore and an  increase in cane price for 2013-14.

Several cooperative mills have already started crushing and the chief minister launched the operation at Mohinuddinpur sugar mill in Meerut. The Sugar Corporation mill had not been functional for a long time and the government invested Rs 10 crore to revamp the unit, which has a capacity to crush 30,000 quintals of cane a day.

Kisan Jagriti Manch president Sudhir Panwar lamented “the delayed efforts” of the state government in resolving the problems of sugar industry. He said it had upset sugarcane farmers’ budgets.

“There is no possibility that mills will function in full capacity before December 10. Consequently, farmers will not be able to sow wheat crop, thereby causing a loss of Rs 45,000 a hectare, besides expenditure on idle labour and alternative fodder,” he said.

“The government is only concerned about the projected losses of sugar industry and not the real loss of farmers. This will surely affect cane acreage next year, as there is reduction of 50% in October cane planting,” Panwar said.