Yamunanagar: Paid less, cane growers accuse jaggery makers of exploitation
Yamunanagar, December 11
Sugarcane producers have alleged that jaggery (gur) makers are exploiting them by procuring sugarcane from them at much lesser rates than the state advisory price (SAP).
They demanded that the government should make a policy for jaggery units (popularly known as kolhus), so that owners/operators of these units do not procure sugarcane from the farmers at lesser rates than SAP.
The state government had fixed SAP of sugarcane at Rs 362 per quintal last year and this year, SAP was yet to be fixed by the government.
All sugar mills of the state procure sugarcane on SAP. However, as per the farmers, the jaggery makers are offering anything between Rs 260 and Rs 270 a quintal.Farmer leader Satpal Kaushik has lodged a complaint on the CM Window portal alleging that the jaggery making units are exploiting the farmers by procuring sugarcane from them at lesser rates than SAP.
“There is a need of licence from the government to run a jaggery making unit. In this way, these units will be controlled by the government. The operators/owners of these units will then procure sugarcane at the rate of SAP from the farmers,” said Satpal Kaushik in his complaint.
According to information, all sugarcane producers (farmers) can’t make an agreement of sugarcane supply with sugar mills due to several reasons and they are compelled to sell their produce at throwaway prices to jaggery making units.
“The agreement of supplying sugarcane to sugar mills does not suit most of the small farmers as they get inadequate indents after long intervals. In this process, it takes long time for them to harvest even a single acre crop of sugarcane,” said a farmer.
He further said, “Besides this, the farmers, who make agreement with sugar mills, have to supply their additional produce to jaggery units.”
According to information, the operators of the jaggery units fix the prices of sugarcane as per the demand and supply of the cane, every day. When there is excess supply of cane, they pay lesser rates and when the supply is less they offer higher rates.
