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Minister directs Ahilyanagar mills to finalise cane FRP by Nov 9
Ahilyanagar guardian minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil has instructed the 21 sugar mills to finalise the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) by November 9
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Pune: The Ahilyanagar guardian minister, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, has instructed the 21 sugar mills to finalise the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) by November 9. The FRP is the minimum price that the sugar mills buy sugarcane from the farmers to produce sugar, ethanol etc.
Vikhe Patil’s meeting comes in wake of threats of different farmers organisations of starting an indefinite rasta roko stir and preventing transportation of sugar from the mills if the farmers do not get higher price for selling sugarcane to the mills.
The sugarcane farmers have demanded ₹5000 per ton as FRP or the existing FRP that mills would pay and an additional subsidy of ₹1000 per ton that Centre must give.
“The board of directors of each sugar factory in the district should hold separate meetings with farmers and finalise the price by November 9,” said the guardian minister.
He chaired a meeting a couple of days back involving officials of the sugar mills, representatives of sugarcane farmers and district administration authorities.
During the meeting, representatives of sugarcane farmers also raised issues about the accuracy of weighbridges in the factories to weigh the sugarcane.
“All the weighbridges in the factories must be inspected by a joint teams comprising the local tehsildar and officials of the Legal Metrology Department. During inspection, representatives of farmers’ organisations must be present with the team. This will help in removing doubts in the minds of farmers regarding the weighing process,” said Vikhe Patil.
The guardian minister announced that a separate grievance redressal centre shall be set up so that complaints faced by sugarcane producing farmers during the crushing season are resolved immediately.
“The complaints of farmers will be handled on priority and appropriate solutions must be found,” said the minister.
The chief of the Shetkari Sena, Abhijit Pote, said that the farmers are apprehensive whether the sugar mill managements will abide by the directives of the guardian minister.
“If the FRP is not increased the farmers will block the Ahilyanagar-Manmad highway. We will also not allow the sugar produced in the mills to be transported to other parts of the state,” said Pote.
Vikhe Patil said that the state government’s role is to resolve issues and maintain coordination between sugarcane farmers and sugar mill owners.
