After facing a series of protests by farmers and slammed by the united Opposition of both BJP and JD(S), the Karnataka Government on Tuesday has agreed to pay Rs 930 crores dues to the sugarcane farmers.
Announcing the Government’s decision after the two-day long debate on the matter in the legislative Assembly, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that Rs 200 per tonne of sugarcane have been supplied by the farmers and the Government would pay Rs 100 per tonne by July 10 and ask the mills to clear the remaining Rs 100 per tonne by July 31. If they failed to pay it, the Government would make the payment and later recover the amount from the producers Rs 930 crore dues for the year 2013-14. The mills had paid Rs 2,300 per tonne to the farmers after the State Government had fixed MSP at Rs 2,500 for 2013-14 but refused to pay the remaining Rs 200 saying that they were under loss due to falling sugar prices and weak demand for their produce.
The Chief Minister was, however, non-committal over Rs 2,120 crore due from the sugar mills to the farmers for the 2014-15 crop and urged the Union Government, which had fixed the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP), to announce to settle the issue if the sugar mills were not able to pay it.
“The sugar producers have paid Rs 1,800 which is about 80 per cent of the FRP fixed by the Centre. With the sugarcane crisis affecting the farmers throughout the country, the Centre should intervene and make good the losses to the farmers if the mill owners were not ready to pay full FRP,’’ he said.
However, Opposition leader of the BJP Jagdish Shettar demanded that the Government should clear the air over the Rs 2,120 crore due by the sugar mills for the year 2014-15 and demanded that the State Government should pay the sum if the sugar mills refuse to do so.