Farmers meet officials over sugar mill transfer

A delegation of organisations affiliated to the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) held a meeting with the General Manager of Cooperative Sugar Mill, Ajnala, Subhash Chander and the General Manager of Cooperative Sugar Mill, Bhogpur, Gurvinder Pal Singh here today regarding the transfer of ownership of the sugar mill at Sheron to some other department.

In the meeting, organised at the initiative of Deputy Commissioner, Tarn Taran, Rahul, a delegation consisting of leaders of farmer organisations, Mehar Singh Sakhira, Nachhattar Singh Mughalchak, Daljit Singh Dayalpura, Mukhtar Singh Malla, Manjit Singh Baggu and Tarsem Singh Lohar participated in the meeting.

No meaningful response was given to the leaders of the organisations by the officials of the cooperative sugar mills. The farmers remained adamant on their views against transferring the ownership of the Cooperative Sugar Mill, Sheron, while the officials told them that the government had already taken the initial steps to transfer the ownership of the mill, due to which they could not give any assurance to the farmers.

On this, the farmers warned that if the government persists with its views, they would be forced to wage a fierce struggle. It may be mentioned that for the last 16 years, the farmer organisations have been demanding that the ownership of the closed Cooperative Sugar Mill, Sheron, be prevented from being transferred to any other institution but their plea has so far failed to fructify.