The escrow account is proving a boon for sugarcane farmers in Uttar Pradesh. This payment has not only revived the battered sugar industry but has also changed the fortune of cane farmers by making a record payment to them.
Soon after the Yogi Adityanath government assumed office in Uttar Pradesh, it made it mandatory for mills to open escrow accounts which have proved to be a boon for farmers by protecting, securing, increasing their income and bringing in transparency into the system.
As per rules, 85 per cent money received in the account by the sugar mill is earmarked for the payment of the outstanding dues of farmers. This has resulted in arresting diversion of money for purposes other than payment to the farmers.
The new system brought transparency in getting the amount of sugarcane price paid by sugar mills to the farmers. Now the account of sugarcane price is being operated jointly by the mill representative and district cane officer. Earlier, mills used to divert funds for other purposes. But after setting up an escrow account, the money deposited in it was used directly for payment of cane price to the farmers.
For instance, a purchaser of sugar from mills is required to deposit 85 per cent of the price of the commodity in the escrow accounts and the rest 15 per cent to the sellers, i.e. sugar mills. Later the money received by the sugar mills from the sale of molasses, bagasse, ethanol and sanitiser is also deposited in the escrow accounts.
Such sugar mills, which are making ethanol directly from sugarcane juice, have tagged 55 per cent of the value of ethanol produced in those mills for payment of cane price. About 65 per cent of the selling price of ethanol used by the mills for the production of sanitisers has also been tagged for payment of sugarcane price, due to which the problem of payment of sugarcane price to the farmers has ended.
The state government has taken many steps to strengthen the sugarcane farmers in the state. To address the various problems of the sugarcane farmers, the government has issued a toll-free number 1800-121-3203. Now the sugarcane farmers are getting their solution by registering their complaints on toll-free number 1800-103-5823 for the problem of survey, speculation, calendar, slip etc. With this initiative of the government, so far 1,17,926 complaints out of 1,22,125 received have been resolved.