Extending the olive branch to sugar mill owners threatening to close shop, the Akhilesh Yadav government retained the old sugar cane price of Rs 280 per quintal drawing the ire of Opposition parties and farmers’ bodies.
After a state cabinet meeting in lucknow on Monday, Yadav announced that the State Advised Price (SAP) of sugarcane would not undergo any change. The price of general variety of cane remains at Rs 280 per quintal while the Opposition parties have been demanding Rs 350 per quintal. Interestingly there has been no change in SAP since 2012-13.
“The cane price has not been hiked taking in view the condition of sugar mills. Factors like availability of sugar and its rate in the open market decide the price of sugarcane. Keeping everything in mind, the government has decided not to hike SAP this year,” Yadav told reporters in lucknow on Monday.
"A Committee headed by Chief Secretary, Alok Ranjan had recommended that the SAP not be hiked. The cabinet approved that recommendation,” he said.
The last time SAP was hiked was in 2012-13 when it was increased by almost 17 per cent to Rs 280 per quintal for common variety, which forms the bulk of the cash crop. For the subsequent crushing seasons 2013-14 and 2014-15, the SAP level was retained.
The UP Sugar Mills Association has welcomed government move.. “It is a good decision. The sugar industry is passing through a bad phase. Keeping in view the depressed market and losses suffered by the industry in the past five years, we had demanded that the government should not increase SAP and we are happy our plea has been upheld,” Secretary, UP Pradesh Sugar Mills Association, Deepak Guptara said on Monday.
Meanwhile, Opposition parties like BJP, Congress, Rashtriya lok Dal (RlD) and Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) have criticised the UP government for not increasing the SAP.
While BJP and the Congress alleged that the state government has played into the hands of private sugar mill owners, the RlD and the BKU said that the government was not concerned about the problems of the farmers.
BJP spokesperson Vijay Bahadur Pathak said that the party would agitate against the undemocratic act. Congress spokesperson Maroof Khan said that when prices of everything has gone up, the rate of cane has been unchanged for the past three years which exposes the anti-farmer attitude of the SP government.
RlD state president Munna Singh Chauhan said that party will not accept the SAP and would continue to press for Rs 350 per quintal. BKU spokesperson Rakesh Tikait also vowed to launch a state -wide stir against the non-increase in SAP and backlog in the payment of the cane dues.
Sugarcane arrears to the tune of over Rs 1,200 crore for the previous 2014-15 crushing season is still pending on mill owners. "In the the current season, the sugar mills have so far paid nearly Rs 750 crore to farmers against the total dues of Rs 1,250 crore," an official said.
This season, 113 mills are engaged in crushing operations which include 89 private mills, 23 co-operative mills and one of the corporation.