Four godowns sealed for not paying dues to farmers

Four godowns of a sugar mill here were sealed for allegedly not paying dues worth Rs 145 crores to cane farmers , officials said today.
Four godowns of Rana Sugar mill were seized following a raid conducted by a team of SDM, district cane officer, Tehsildar, secretary of cane department and contingent of police personnel for allegedly not paying dues to the farmers, District Magistrate Rakesh Kumar Singh said.
The team has recovered 12,973 bags of sugar and 72,419 quintals of molasses in tanks worth Rs 12 lakh in the seizure, officials added.
A deadline of 15 days has been given to the management to pay off the dues, failing which the administration would be free to dispose off the seized sugar, the DM added.

"24 per cent dues of the total amount have been deposited in the bank accounts of the farmers," he claimed.
The leaders of various unions of cane growers have alleged that administration of the cane department were in league with the defaulting management of the mill.

Parshuram Sharma, zonal secretary of Bhartiya Kisan Union, has charged the authorities of not verifying the stocks and threatened to gherao the SDM if they are not satisfied with the action taken by the administration.
"Unsatisfied with the administrative action, we will gherao the SDM," Sharma said.
District president of BKU (Asli) has alleged that the sugar mills produces have been pledged to Chandausi-based traders and the godowns were almost empty.