Rs 42 crore arrears pending, farmers lock sugar mill

Phagwara, September 27

Hundreds of sugarcane growers under the banner of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Doaba) today locked the gates of the Phagwara Sugar Mill and sat on an indefinite dharna.

The farmers are protesting over the non-payment of arrears to the tune of Rs 42 crores since the past four years.

Manjit Singh Rai, chief, BKU (Doaba), said, the dharna would continue as long as the pending arrears were not released. Phagwara SDM Jai Inder Singh, who rushed to pacify the protesters, said, Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian had already called a meeting on September 28 in Mohali.

The SDM said present owner of the sugar mill Rana Gurjeet Singh (Congress MLA), former owners Sukhbir Sandhar, Jaswinder Singh Bains and Jarnail Singh Wahid, besides Cane Commissioner, DC Kapurthala, ADC Phagwara Amit Kumar Panchal, Project Officer (Sugarcane), tehsildar and leaders of the BKU (Doaba) had been asked to attend the meeting to resolve the issue of pending arrears.

The SDM, who is also the president of the Price Fixation Committee, said in order to attach the properties of Wahid, Sandhar and Bains, the PWD officials had been asked to assess the value of their houses, including plots, and structures.