Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in a major decision barely months ahead of the upcoming 2022 assembly elections, on Sunday announced a Rs 25 per quintal hike in the state advisory price (SAP) of sugarcane for the next cane crushing season 2021-22 to commence from October.
Yogi Adityanath also announced to waive the interest on the outstanding electricity bills of the farmers.
The announcement was made by the chief minister in the BJP's Kisan Sammelan here at The Defence Expo Ground in Vrindavan area in the state capital.
Yogi Adityanath also announced to waive the interest on the outstanding electricity bills of the farmers.
The Yogi government had left SAP unchanged at Rs 315 (for common variety) for three years in a row since 2018-19. The UP government had, however, raised SAP by Rs 10 per quintal soon after assuming power in 2017.
With the hike in SAP, the cane farmers will get Rs 350 per quintal for early variety, Rs 340 for common variety and Rs 330 for rejected variety. Earlier the rate was Rs 325, Rs 315 and Rs 305 per quintal respectively.
The hike in the sugarcane price will benefit over 45 lakh cane farmers in the state. This will be the second hike of SAP of sugarcane during the BJP regime. Earlier it was hiked nominally when Yogi Adityanath came to power in 2017 and now after four-and-a-half years it is being hiked by Rs 25 per quintal.
While announcing the hike in the sugarcane prices, the chief minister said along with the Centre, the Uttar Pradesh government had always been friendly to the farmers and the poor. He said all the schemes were also prepared keeping in mind the interest of the farmers.
Yogi Adityanath said that now sugarcane farmers would get hiked sugarcane prices which would increase their income by eight per cent. “This will increase the income of 45 lakh farmers of the state,” he said.
He said during the Bharatiya Janata Party government the closed sugar mills were revived and no mill was sold by the government to the private sector. He said during the Bahujan Samaj Party government as many as 21 PSU sugar mills were sold to the private parties.
"These people had sold the government sugar mills at throwaway prices. The work was done to sell sugar mills worth Rs 250-300 crore for Rs 25-30 crore. We are trying to restore these mills," he said.
To give this message to counter the ongoing farmers' stir and a day before the Bharat Bandh, the BJP Kisan Morcha called farmers from every assembly constituency in the meeting. Around 20,000 farmers representing almost all the 403 assembly constituencies in the state were present in the meeting.
The Centre on August 26 had increased the fair and remunerative price (FRP) of sugarcane from Rs 285 to Rs 290 per quintal, triggering speculation that state governments would fall in line and raise SAP for the next cane crushing season commencing from October.
The state government has managed to pay more than 85 per cent cane dues to farmers for the 2029-21 crushing season.
A cane department official said a record Rs 1.45 lakh crore was paid to farmers in the last four years despite challenges posed by the pandemic that brought economic and industrial activity to a standstill.
Experts say the demand for sugar in the commercial sector fell dramatically and sugar mills faced a contracted paying capacity.