Farmers' body slams UP sugar industry for 'arm twisting' govt

Demands sugarcane price at Rs 327 a quintal

Kisan Jagriti Manch, a prominent farmers’ body, on Tuesday flayed the sugar industry in Uttar Pradesh for resorting to ‘arm twisting’ in order to put pressure on the state government against increasing cane prices.

According to Kisan Jagriti Manch president Sudhir Panwar, sugar millers are trying to ‘blackmail’ the government by not only communicating their unwillingness to run mills unless the state government assured them subsidy for cane price above Rs 240 a quintal, but also by boycotting the recent cane reservation meetings.

“We don’t have any confrontation with the sugar industry...We have always invited them to all meetings, including cane reservation meetings,” Rahul Bhatnagar, UP principal secretary, sugar industry and cane development, told Business Standard.

The millers have already apprised the government of their inability to clear cane arrears of about Rs 2,400 crore pertaining to the last season.

Recently, UP Sugar Mills Association (UPSMA) had brought out big advertisements in newspapers saying there is a crisis in the industry and that their financial situation is precarious due to losses incurred in the previous crushing seasons.

Panwar, who teaches at Lucknow University, has demanded that UP fix sugarcane price at Rs 327 a quintal against last year’s price of Rs 280 a quintal. “There has been almost a 20 per cent increase in farm input cost over the last year and farmers need to be paid accordingly,” he added.

Panwar claimed the sugar industry was not giving the holistic picture of sugar sector and talking only of retail sugar price, which he conceded had not kept pace with the cane price in UP.

“Last year, the Centre conceded to most of the demands by the sugar industry such as abolition of sugar levy, relaxation in purchase tax and de-control of molasses. Besides, the price of ethanol has increased from Rs 27 a litre to Rs 38 a litre. All these factors have been favourable to the mills,” he noted. He claimed sugar levy abolition alone brought windfall of Rs 900 crore to the state sugar industry.

Meanwhile, the state government denied there was any confrontation with millers.

“We don’t have any confrontation with the sugar industry, which of course has unilaterally been giving statements on and off. We have always invited them to all meetings, including the cane reservation meetings,” UP principal secretary sugar industry and cane development Rahul Bhatnagar told Business Standard.

He claimed the state mills had started the repair and maintenance work in their premises ahead of the coming crushing season.

“The state cane price would be announced in due course after taking into consideration all views and aspects,” he informed.

Sugar millers want linking of sugarcane price with sugar prices in UP, which accounts for 30 per cent of India’s sugar output and supports over four million farmers’ families.