The state government said that it would comply with the Supreme Court order on payment of interest to cane growers by the sugar industry for delayed payment of dues.
The Apex court on Monday had upheld the order of Allahabad High Court of March, 2017 directing private sugar mills to pay interest to farmers for delayed payment of cane dues.
The Allahabad High Court also quashed the order of the previous Akhilesh Yadav regime where it had waived off interest of over Rs 2,000 crore payable to cane growers by sugar factories for delayed payment for 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15.
On May 22, 2015, the Alkhilesh Yadav government accepted the request of mill owners that they were not in a position to pay interest for delay in payment as they incurred losses due to dip in sugar prices.
While upholding the state’s right to waive off interest, the High Court had said that the waiver was without application of mind as the committee set up to look into the issue only considered viewpoints of mill owners and the report was onesided and failed to consider the farmers’ perspective.
The High Court had given four months to UP Cane Commissioner to take a decision after keeping farmers’ interest in mind.
However no decision was taken by the Yogi government even after 13 months of the court’s directive.
Convener of Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan, VM Singh had challenged the power of the state to waive off the interest in Supreme Court and the delay in implementation of the March 2017 order of Allahabad HighCourt.
Singh argued that sugar mills take supplies of cane from farmers in terms of statutory provisions which mandate payment of cane dues within 14 days. He also prayed for enforcement of the High Court order for payment of interest to farmers by sugar mills. Refusing to quash the Allahabad High Court order of March 2017, the Apex court upheld the High Court’s order for interest payment.
Singh said that the Apex Court allowed his prayer where he urged that farmers were in ‘dire straits’ and penal interest should be paid by mill owners to cane growers for delay in payment of cane price for 2011-15.
“The private mills take months, even years, to clear farmers’ dues and at times, refuse to do so. This makes it difficult for farmers to pay interest and penalties on late payment of loans taken to raise the cane. The delay in payment by mills to farmers is a regular issue, which brings misery to more than 45 lakh cane farmers in UP,” he claimed. Principal Secretary and Cane Commissioner Sanjay Bhus Reddy said, “We are in the process of implementing the High Court order of March 2017 for payment of interest to cane farmers. Officials held public hearing with farmers and mill owners. Audited balance sheets and profit and loss account of each mill was being examined and was likely to be completed in the next two to three months as the department lacks the manpower to examine accounts of over 100 private mills.”