Demanding a better price for the cane growers and payment of cane dues at the earliest a delegation of BJP legislature party met Governor B l Joshi and demanded that he should ask the state government to fix the cane price at Rs 325 per quintal.
The delegation led by leader of BJP legislature Party in state assembly Hukum Singh told governor that in last one year cost of production of sugarcane has increased by 25 to 30 per cent following increase in prices of fertilizers, seeds and diesel. "The State Advisory Price (SAP) of sugarcane announced by the state government do not supplement the overall hike. Besides, the central and the state governments have given incentives to the sugar mills in last few years resulting which this sector has booked a profit of Rs 17,000 crore. The industries have not even shared one per cent of this profit with cane farmers," the BJP leaders said in their memorandum.
They further said that the neighbouring state of Haryana and Punjab have announced the cane price of Rs 300 per quintal forcing the UP farmers to sell their produce in the neighbouring states. "It is a well planned strategy of Samajwadi Party to help private millers therefore itr delayed the SAP declaration process by almost a month. This in turn delayed harvesting of sugar cane which in turn delayed sowing of rabi crop.The whole cropping cycle has gone haywire by one wrong decision of the state government," the BJP leaders said. The BJP requested the Governor to intervene and ask the state government to declare a cane price of Rs 325 per quintal. The delegation also included BJP MlAs Sangeet Som and Suresh Rana who were booked under NSA for giving inflammatory speeches during Muzaffarnagar riots.