BKU not happy with Rs25 hike in sugarcane MSP

Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 26

The Bharti Kisan Union (Lakhowal) has expressed discontentment over the “meagre” increase of Rs 25 in the minimum support price (MSP) of sugarcane and termed it as a “big joke with the farmers”.

Union’s General Secretaries Harinder Singh Lakhowal and Sukhrajwinder Singh Gill urged the government to reconsider the decision and raise the MSP of sugarcane to at least Rs 500 per quintal.

Union functionaries said the state government was paying the support price of Rs 300 per quintal to the sugarcane producers and a marginal hike of Rs 25 was meaningless. “Farmers would be motivated to diversify from the traditional crop rotation of wheat and paddy and go for crops such as sugarcane only if they get remunerative prices for their produce,” said a BKU leader.

Emphasising upon the dire need to reduce the cultivation of paddy and cutting down the area under this crop to conserve groundwater, Lakhowal and Gill said the government ought to fix the MSP of various crops at 50 per cent more than the total cost of cultivation.

They said in the absence proper arrangements for the purchase of crops such as sun flower, the farmers were being harassed and forced to sell their produce at less than the MSP fixed by the government. In such circumstances, all efforts for the diversification of agriculture would come to a naught, said the BKU leaders.

The farmers’ body called upon the state government to intervene for early payment of sugar cane arrears of Rs 126 crore due towards the cooperative sugar mills in the state.