A day after former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh pointed that the state-owned sugar mills owed about Rs 250 crores to sugarcane growers pending for a long time, Punjab Government on Tuesday denied the contention regarding “unwarranted delay in the payments to the sugarcane farmers”.
The Government spokesperson, in a Press communiqué, clarified that there was “no pendency” of payments to the sugarcane farmers for previous financial years as the cent percent arrears have already been cleared.
“For the financial year 2013-14, Rs 263.47 crore has already been disbursed to the farmers out of total payments of Rs 464.39 crore. Besides, Rs 18 crore has also been given to them out of remaining Rs 222.22 crore before imposition of Model code of Conduct during recent parliamentary elections,” said the spokesperson.
He further made it clear that the remaining payments could not be awarded to the farmers due to the code of conduct. Spokesperson also asked the sugarcane farmers to remain vigilant from misleading statements about the arrears as there was no pendency of payments for the year 2011-12 and 2012-13. Out of total pendency of Rs 204.22 crore, Rs 21.30 crore was pending with private millers, he added.
“Due to imposition of Model code of Conduct from March 5 to May 16 in the State, no sanction has been given by the Finance Department to disburse arrears to the farmers. After cessation of code of conduct, Rs 20 crore has been sanctioned by the department on June 2 while case for the balance payments has been dispatched to the Finance Department. SUGARFED would soon disburse the remaining payments to the farmers,” he added.