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Farmer unions to launch stir against govt’s delay in fixing sugarcane SAP
The farmer leaders alleged that the government was not concerned about the farmers as it was not announcing the SAP even though crushing operations in all private and cooperative sugar mills started last month
: Farmer unions in Haryana have decided to hold protests across the state next week against the government’s delay in fixing the state approved price (SAP) for sugarcane for the ongoing crushing season.
Bhartya Kisan Union (Charuni) will hold a protest at all the sugar mills in the state against the delay on December 12.
BKU (Tikait) Haryana announced to launch an agitation from December 15, if the government did not hike the SAP to ₹ 400 per quintal. They will also hold a meeting at Bilaspur in Yamunanagar district on December 11 on the issue.
The farmer leaders alleged that the government was not concerned about the farmers as it was not announcing the SAP even though crushing operations in all private and cooperative sugar mills started last month.
“This is ironical that the government has not fixed the SAP yet, even as the Punjab government has already fixed the SAP to ₹ 380 per quintal but the Haryana government failed to announce the SAP yet. Now, we will launch an agitation by holding protests at all the sugar mills of the state on December 12,” Bharitya Kisan Union (Charuni) President Gurnam Singh Charuni said in a video message.
He said that the farmers will hold protests from 11am to 1pm at the entrances of all the sugar mills and will also submit a memorandum to the mill officials.
Charuni said that they will start an agitation from January if the government failed to accept their demands.
He said that they have already written to the chief minister for a hike in sugarcane prices by fixing the SAP to ₹ 450 per quintal as the farmers were already suffering due to poor yield because of disease and pest attack.
BKU (Tikait) Haryana president Ratan Mann said the government was working under pressure of the sugar mills as the delay in fixing the SAP will also delay the disbursement of payments.
“Farmers are worried and they are not able to get the input cost of their produce while the sugar mills are earning double profit as they have also set up ethanol plants and selling it at a much higher price in comparison to sugar,” he said.
For the past several years, Haryana is known for providing the highest price of sugarcane in the country, but after a hike of ₹ 20 per quintal by the Aam Aadmi Party-led government, now Punjab has the highest sugarcane SAP of ₹ 380 a quintal.
The officials associated with a committee which fixes the SAP said that the Haryana government is planning to increase the prices further taking it above ₹ 380.
“But the proposal to increase the SAP was pending with the chief minister’s office and the announcement was likely to happen soon,” said a senior official from the agriculture department.
According to the agriculture department data, the state has around 90,000 hectares under sugarcane this year and the sugarcane production is expected to remain around 70 lakh MT as the high-yielding varieties are under severe attack of the top-borer disease.
