UP: Sugarcane Farmers to Hold Sit-in Protest Against Pending Dues, Feel ‘Cheated’ by Modi Govt

Lucknow: Sugarcane farmers in Western Uttar Pradesh threaten to hold a massive agitation from July if their long pending dues from the State government and private sugar factories are not paid on time. 

In a letter to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the convenor of Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan (RKMS), VM Singh, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his campaign for the 2017 UP Assembly elections, had promised farmers that payment of arrears will be done in 14 days, or interest will be given if the amount is not paid on time. But despite the passage of four-and-half years, the promise has not been fulfilled, he said, adding the farmers had voted for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the hope that their problems would be solved but they are feeling ‘cheated’ by the government. 

Read Also: Cane Farmers Launch Sit-in Protest Across UP Over Non-Payment of Arrears, Serve Ultimatum till Nov 7

"Before the Assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised that if BJP was voted to power, it would ensure that cane due are cleared within 14 days. If payment is delayed, sugar mills would have to an interest of 15% per annum for the period of the delay in addition to the principal amount," Singh told NewsClick

He said none of these promises have been kept by the Prime Minister. Sugarcane farmers are very rarely paid within 14 days, as the law requires, and sugar mills never pay any interest to the farmers on account of delay.

The RKMS leader said farmers would stage protests from July 6-12 at the offices of district magistrates, sub-divisional magistrates and tehsil offices across the west UP. After this, on July 15, there will be an agitation at the cane commissioner's office. 

Cane farmers said they were left with no option but to leave their families and hold sit-in protests. With the dues not being cleared, farmers said they were forced to take loans from arhtiyas and banks to make both ends meet.

TRACTOR MARCH

Farmers in Uttar Pradesh will also organise ‘Tractor March’ on July 9 against the three agri laws. A group of farmers from Shamli distrcit will be marching toward Ghazipur border and join the ongoing stir. Recently, thousands of farmers from Western Uttar Pradesh – Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar and Meerut -- took out a two-day tractor march, led by Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) president Naresh Tikait that culminated in Ghazipur border where farmes have been sitting in protests for seven months now.

The farmers' union is demanding that the entire sugarcane price for the crushing season 2020-21 should be paid immediately, the interest for 2011-12 should be paid at the rate of 15% and the interest from 2012-13 to 2014-15 should be paid as per the Cane Commissioner’s order. The interest for the crushing season 2015-16 to 2020-21 should be paid at the rate of 15% per annum and in addition, the minimum support price (MSP) of sugarcane should be ensured at Rs 450 per quintal.

Meanwhile, state sugar minister Suresh Rana said the UP government was keeping a close watch on four sugar groups -- Modi, Simbhaoli, Bajaj Hindustan and Yadus --  who have been laggards in clearing the cane dues. He claimed the government would not hesitate to take strict action against the four mills.

The minister said that less than Rs 10,000 crore cane payments were yet to be cleared by mills in Uttar Pradesh in the ongoing 2020-21 sugar season (October to September), with much of it belonging to these groups. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Uttar Pradesh government has taken several measures to ensure mills pay farmers on time.

BKU spokesperson Dharmendra Malik contradicted the minister and accused the state government of “manipulating data”, adding that “a few days ago, the dues pending from mills were more than Rs 11,000 crore. Second, almost all sugar mills stopped operating in May 15 as crushing season was over, and as per law,the payment should be done within 14 days but still Rs 11,000 crore in dues were pending.”

“Don’t this minister and government feel ashamed that farmers are protesting for getting their own hard-earned money that they invest during harvesting,” said Naresh Chaudhary, a farmer of Meerut.  

5 MILLS OWE Rs 133.20 CRORE TO FARMERS IN KUSHINAGAR

With the 2020-21 crushing season almost coming to an end, five sugar mills still owe Rs 133.20 crore to the growers, many of whom have been pushed to the brink of poverty. A few of them have been are forced to take loans on Kisan Credit Cards to make their both ends meet.

In Kushinagar district, once known as the sugar capital of India, five private sugar mills -- Dhadha, Ramkola P, Kaptanganj, Severhi and Khadda -- crushed 215.39 lakh quintals of sugarcane worth Rs 69,368.73 lakh. Though these mills have paid off Rs 56,048.71 lakh till June 21 so far, they still owe Rs 13,320.02 lakh to the growers, according to data available with the cane department. 

National president of Veterans Association Kisan Morcha and district president of BKU, Ramchandra Singh, told Newsclick:  "When Kushinagar was part of Deoria district, the region had 26 sugar mills before Independence, of which only five are operating. More than five lakh farmers have been affected by the closure of sugar mills. In 2014, Narendra Modi had promised the people of Kushinagar that within 100 days of the BJP coming to power, sugar mills in the region would be restarted. Seven years later, there is no sign of any sugar mill restarting operations,” Singh said.

Accusing the Adityanath government for not fulfilling his election promise, Singh said: "The Yogi government had said that all sugar mills of the state should make payment of sugarcane to the farmers within 14 days. If a mill owner fails to make payment within 14 days, he will pay the sugarcane along with interest to the farmers, but the situation is that, the principal amount of sugarcane has not been paid to the farmers, leave interest" he alleged.