MADURAI
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the State to constitute a Sugarcane Control Board to address the grievances of sugarcane growers.
The court was hearing a petition filed by two sugarcane growers, Maniyarasu and Karuppudayar, who sought a direction to sugar mills to clear their dues for supply of sugarcane from 2013 to 2016.
During the course of hearing, Additional Advocate General K. Chellapandian submitted that the government had announced a shift from the State advisory price payable to farmers during the crushing season to a scientific revenue-sharing method to assure a fair and remunerative price.
Justice R. Suresh Kumar observed that once the board was formed, the farmers would be in a position to know whether it would consider the State advisory price or a fair and remunerative price to pay their arrears.
The court directed the State to constitute the board under Section 3 of the Tamil Nadu Sugarcane (Regulation of Purchase Price) Act, within two months. The case was posted for reporting compliance to October 14.