INDIA | Sugarcane farmers seek complete payment

AMBALA: On a call by Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) Haryana and the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, the sugarcane farmers of the Naraingarh area held a mahapanchayat at the Naraingarh sugar mill in village Banondi in Shahzadpur.

Led by BKU state pres­i­dent Gur­nam Singh Charuni, the farm­ers pressed for action against the mill for not releas­ing the pend­ing pay­ment. The farm­ers sat on the weigh­ing scale to stop the mill from func­tion­ing.

Addi­tion­al deputy com­mis­sion­er (ADC), Cap­tain Shak­ti Singh, Narain­garh sub-divi­sion­al mag­is­trate (SDM), Adi­ti, Narain­garh deputy super­in­ten­dent of police, Amit Bha­tia and the mill man­age­ment tried to paci­fy the farm­ers.

At around 1.30pm, SDM Adi­ti told the farm­ers that the state min­is­ter Nayab Singh Sai­ni would meet them at 11am on Jan­u­ary 4. But Charuni refused to dis­perse the crowd and said, “The min­is­ter wants to break the uni­ty of the farm­ers, as he is aware that anoth­er day the farm­ers may not unite in this strength again.”

At around 4.45pm, SDM Adi­ti told the farm­ers that she had talked to the cane com­mis­sion­er and that the gov­ern­ment would release the pay­ment of Rs 11 crore by Thurs­day to the sug­ar mill’s account and the mill would release the pay­ment to the farm­ers with­in next two days. But Charuni said, “We have received many such assur­ances. Until we meet high lev­el offi­cials, we will not get up from the weigh­ing scale.”

Lat­er, at around 6.30 pm, ADC Singh also reached the spot and tried to paci­fy the farm­ers.

Charuni told TOI, “The gov­ern­ment assures that it would release Rs 11 crore of the 2017–18 sea­son, but it is not dis­cussing the remain­ing Rs 11 crore from the same sea­son and also noth­ing about the pay­ment of near­ly Rs 78 crore of the 2018–19 sea­son. I have received a call from the agri­cul­ture min­is­ter O P Dhankar, who said that they will release the pay­ment of Rs 11 crore by Thurs­day. But we are not get­ting up from the scale. The admin­is­tra­tion has assured us a meet­ing on Thurs­day at 3pm with the state min­is­ter Nayab Singh Sai­ni, cane com­mis­sion­er and the sug­ar mill own­er. We will dis­cuss the mat­ter of releas­ing the entire pay­ment of the farm­ers, which is near­ly Rs 100 crore.”

ADC Singh told TOI, “The farm­ers were told that Rs 11 crore will be released by Thurs­day, but they did not lis­ten and remained adamant to meet the own­ers of the sug­ar mill. We have arranged a meet­ing of the farm­ers with the mill’s own­er on Thurs­day at 3 pm. As of now, the farm­ers are sit­ting in the mill.”

Fuente: Time­sOfInd­ia.