Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal on Saturday expressed solidarity with protesting sugarcane farmers and demanded the Congress government increase the State Assured Price (SAP) of sugarcane to a minimum of Rs 380 per quintal besides calling for the immediate release of all pending payments due to the cane growers.
He also announced that in case the Congress government did not do justice to sugarcane growers, the next SAD-BSP alliance government would raise the SAP to a minimum of Rs 380 per quintal. “We will include this commitment in our election manifesto also”, he added.
In a statement here, the SAD President said it was shocking that after refusing to increase the SAP for sugarcane for four years the Punjab government had affected a measly Rs 15 per quintal increase towards the fag end of its tenure. “This amounts to betraying both the sugarcane growers as well as the cause of diversification. The government has sprinkled salt on the wounds of the cane growers through this callous and insensitive act”.
Badal said had the government hiked the sugarcane price by a minimum of Rs 20 per year the SAP this year would have been at least Rs 380 which was a fair per quintal price for cane. “Not doing so has caused a loss of Rs 1,000 crore to Punjab farmers”, he said adding the neighbouring Haryana government was giving a SAP of Rs 358 per quintal which was Rs 30 to Rs 40 more per quintal”. He said the loss was much more if the interest quotient on the late payments as well as high State VAT on diesel was also taken into consideration.