Partap Singh Bajwa on Tuesday wrote to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and requested him to issue directions to the state officials to clear the pending dues of the sugarcane farmers (File) Congress MLA from Qadian and former Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief Partap Singh Bajwa on Tuesday wrote to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and requested him to issue directions to the state officials to clear the pending dues of the sugarcane farmers in the state at the earliest.
“I wish to bring to your kind attention the pending payments to the sugarcane farmers of Punjab, which is a violation of the provisions of clause 15 A of the Punjab Sugarcane (Regulation of Purchase and Supply) Act 1953 and the Sugarcane Control Order 1966,” Bajwa wrote in the letter, adding that,
“The cane growing season 2021-22 is almost over in Punjab. Most of the sugar mills have closed as the crushing of sugarcane has been completed. The few that remain open are likely to complete the crushing within the next ten to 15 day.”
He pointed point, “It has been brought to my attention that the co-operative sugar mills have been unable to release even 50% of the total dues owed to the farmers. The dues of the Cooperative Mills as of March 18, 2022 are Rs 280.7 crore. Similarly, there are outstanding dues of Rs 513 crore yet to be paid by private sugar mills to the farmers. I wish to mention here that Dhuri Sugar Mills, which falls under your constituency, is yet to release Rs 85 lakh of dues to cane growers for the 2020-21 season and Rs 19 crore for the 2021-22 season.”
The former Rajya Sabha MP further wrote, “Punjab announced an increase in the SAP (State Advisory Price) of sugarcane to Rs 360 per quintal for the 2021-2022 season from the earlier rate of Rs 310 per quintal. The government also agreed to share Rs 35 per quintal with private sugar mills. It has been brought to my attention that these payments have not been made due to officials bringing up the need to update Aadhaar numbers and bank account numbers of the sugarcane farmers.”
“A copy of this information is available with every sugar mill as payments have been made till date via bank transfers only. Therefore, implementing a workable system should not take time.
This delay due to the negligence of officials has created Rs 130 crore of outstanding dues. I believe the previous government had already allocated Rs 140 crore for this purpose. You are kindly requested to issue directions to State officials to make the above mentioned payments to the sugarcane farmers at the earliest. Any further delay in payments will only increase the economic distress faced by the sugarcane farmers of Punjab,” Bajwa wrote.
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