Hitting out at the Congress party, Haryana Minister of State for Renewable Energy, Nayab Singh on Thursday criticised the Opposition leaders for allegedly misleading the farmers.
He said that now, these leaders are talking about the interests of the farming community, whereas in fact they had exploited the farmers and others for their vested interests and had created land banks during their 10-year regime.
Nayab Singh while interacting with mediapersons at the foundation stone laying ceremony of a sewerage line in Naraingarh criticized the opposition leaders for issuing baseless statements.
While taking a strong exception to former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s decision to stage a protest demanding payment of arrears due to sugarcane growers, the Minister said that if Hooda was such a well-wisher of the farmers, why he himself did not give the guarantee to the sugar mills.
He added that the previous Congress Government was not only corrupt, but also discriminated against Naraingarh on the basis of region and employment.
Nayab Singh said that in an unprecedented move, Chief Minister Manohar lal had made available soft loans to sugar mills for the payment of dues accruing to sugarcane growers.
In reply to a question, the Minister said that the State Government has a number of avenues open to ensure payment of dues to sugarcane producers and could take strict action to get them their payments.
He added that Haryana has 14 sugar mills, including 11 in cooperative sector and three private sugar mills.
As many as 11 cooperative sugar mills had purchased sugarcane worth `1,077 crore during the 2014-15 crushing season. Of this amount, payments of more than `1,022 crore have already been made.
Nayab Singh said that three private mills in the state namely Saraswati Sugar Mills, Yamunanagar, Piccadilly Agro Industries limited, Bhadson in district Karnal, and Naraingarh Sugar Mills, Naraingarh in district Ambala, had purchased sugarcane worth `692 crore, of which they have already paid more than `631 crore to the farmers.