Mill to pay ‘some dues’ to growers as Haryana govt yet to announce SAP

Shiv Kumar Sharma

Yamunanagar, December 22

Rescuing cane growers from financial crisis, Saraswati Sugar Mills (SSM) here has taken the decision to pay ‘some amount’ of sugarcane payment to farmers.

Farmers facing financial crisis

In view of the financial crisis being faced by farmers, the mill took the decision to pay some amount to farmers against their current cane price payments to be paid as and when the state govt will notify the SAP for the current crushing season. DP Singh, Senior V-P, Saraswati sugar mills

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The mill management took this decision as the state government is yet to announce the State Advisory Price (SAP) of sugarcane for the current crushing season (2022-23).

Once the government announces the SAP, the mill shall be able to start making full payment to growers as per the advisory price.

According to information, the SSM has on Wednesday paid Rs 55 crore to 9,927 farmers, who supplied cane to the mill up to November 30.

The mill started its crushing operation on November 8 and has crushed about 42 lakh quintal of sugarcane so far.

More than 20,000 farmers of Yamunanagar, Ambala and Kurukshetra are associated with SSM. Citing financial constraints, several farmer organisations are staging protest, demanding immediate announcement of the SAP and release of payment of cane.

“I have been raising the issue of announcing the SAP for long, but the state government has turned a blind eye to the financial problems being faced by farmers. The state government should announce the SAP before the mills start crushing operations,” said Satpal Kaushik, a farmer leader.

DP Singh, senior vice-president (cane) of SSM, said, “In view of the financial crisis being faced by farmers to meet their day-to-day expenses, SSM took the decision to pay some amount to farmers against their current cane price payments to be paid as and when the state government will notify the SAP for the current crushing season.”

He said the amount being paid to farmers had no link with the cane price of previous year, adding that it rather was an ad hoc relief to farmers to meet their day-to-day expenses.

Singh said the said amount would be from the current season payment without any liability to farmers.