Punjab: Cane SAP up Rs 11/quintal, farmers reject hike

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Tribune Reporters

Chandigarh/Jalandhar/ Mukerian, December 1

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann today announced the State Agreed Price (SAP) of sugarcane at Rs 391 per quintal, which is Rs 11 per quintal higher than the SAP for the last cane crushing season of 2022-23. Sugarcane crushing in the state will begin from Saturday.

Goodwill gesture

In Punjab, Rs 11 is considered as ‘shagun’. We have decided to give this as a goodwill gesture to our farmers. The SAP offered to cane growers in Punjab will be the highest in the country. — Bhagwant Mann, Chief Minister

Cruel joke

The CM is claiming that he has given us Rs 11 shagun but he has actually played a cruel joke on us. We have outrightly rejected this offer. — Manjit Singh Rai, Chief, BKU(Doaba)

“In Punjab, Rs 11 is considered as ‘shagun’ and we have decided to give this as a goodwill gesture to our farmers. With this hike, the SAP offered to cane growers in Punjab will be the highest in the country. I had promised the cane cultivators that my government will give the highest SAP and I am fulfilling this promise made to them last week,” he said.

Rejecting the hike of Rs 11 per quintal, sugarcane farmers of the Doaba and Majha blocked the Jalandhar-Jammu National Highway at Mukerian outside a sugar mill around 11 am.

The farmers said their protest would go on indefinitely till the government issued a notification of a reasonable hike. The farmers reached the venue with trolleys laden with sugarcane. Farmer leaders Satnam Singh Bagadian, Gurpratap Singh, Sonu Aulakh and Surjit Singh Billa had been leading the dharna.

Soon after the CM made an announcement regarding Rs 11 per quintal hike as a shagun, the farmers under the banner of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha rejected the offer. Holding a media interaction at Desh Bhagat Yadgar Hall in Jalandhar, Manjit Singh Rai, president of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Doaba), and other farm leaders termed the Rs 11 per quintal hike a sham.

“The CM is flaunting that he has given us Rs 11 shagun but he has actually played a cruel joke with us. We have outrightly rejected this offer. When the CM had met us on November 24, he had said he would announce the hike on November 28 during the Assembly session. We had then asked him what price he would announce, he told us that Haryana had announced Rs 14 more. He said the Punjab’s State Assured Price (SAP) of sugarcane would be higher and that we would be happy and bring in sweets to offer to him”, Rai said.

He further added, “The CM skipped the announcement on both days of session. He had told us to lift dharna on railway track and the NH in Jalandhar. We had agreed to him even then. The CM has again broken his promise. We are expecting at least Rs 408 per quintal. Ideally, he should make the announcement for the next sugarcane crop also now ahead of the sowing season in February so that the farmers should know well in advance whether the crop that they are sowing would be viable or not.”

The farmers also demanded that sugar mills be made operational. The CM quickly responded to this putting out another tweet that the mills would be operational from tomorrow on the new rates. Later, police officials, including Jalandhar Commissioner of Police Swapan Sharma and DIG Border Range Narinder Bhargav, held a meeting with the farmers and tried to convince them from not holding any dharnas against the government on the issue but by then the protest had already started in Mukerian.

Later in the evening, Hoshiarpur DC Komal Mittal told The Tribune that the protesting farmers had shifted to one lane of the highway while the other lane was open to traffic. She said farmers were demanding to show them the notification of the government regarding the opening of sugar mills which was provided to them.

Meanwhile, AAP has welcomed the Mann government’s decision to hike sugarcane price. AAP chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang said farming is the backbone of Punjab’s economy, but it had been neglected by the previous governments.