As the fresh sugarcane season is likely to start from this month, the private sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh is yet to pay the last season dues to the cane farmers at the tune of Rs 4,375.10 crore.
The future of four million cane farmers in the state already hangs in balance after private sugar mills in the state have announced to start the crushing session only if the Akhilesh Yadav government implements the Rangrajan Committee report and providessubsidy to the cane farmers.
Talks with the Samajwadi Party and the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), a platform of 109 private sugar mills in the state, have failed and now the cane farmers who were waiting for the crushing seasons were forced to sell their produce at a throw away price to' Khandasari (gur)' mills, UP Sugar Mills Association (UPSMA) spokesman Deepak Guptara said in a statement here on Thursday.
The total dues of the cane farmers in the state was around Rs 4,375.10 crore even after paying Rs 38,276.61 crore to them in the last season which is around 89.37 per cent of the total dues, they added. However, the government owned 23 co-operative mills in the state have paid the entire amount of Rs 1,925.15 crore. In the private sector, 16 mills of the Bajaj Sugar ltd has a due of Rs 423.54 crore after paying 89.60 per cent of the total dues.
Seven mills of Triveni Sugar ltd has a due of Rs 186.03 crore while 11 mills of Balrampur Sugar ltd has a due of Rs 245.91 crore. The two mills of Modi Sugar ltd has a due of Rs 191.58 crores after they just paid over 61 per cent of their total dues. The 21 individual sugar mills have a due of Rs 285.41 crore while there was Rs 2,387.55 crore pending dues on the private mills since past several years.