The Tamil Nadu Sugarcane Farmers’ Association submitted a petition to Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami here on Friday appealing to him to ensure payment of arrears by private sugar mills to farmers. In the petition, N. Palanichamy, State president of the association, had pointed out that the private mills in the State owed ₹1,510.60 crore in the payment of State Assured Price (SAP) to the farmers from 2013-14 till 2016-17.
Similarly, the petition also pointed out that the private sugar mills had not paid the share in profits from 2004 to 2009, which the farmers were entitled to as per the Sugarcane Control Act of 1966 and a judgement of the Madras High Court. Claiming that around ₹. 550 crore was pending in this regard, the association urged the CM to intervene in the issue.
The association also appealed to the CM to ensure clearance of SAP payments of around ₹. 300 crore, which the cooperative and public sector sugar mills owed in 2015-16 and 2016-17.
Urging the State and Central governments to announce the procurement price for sugarcane for 2017-18 bearing in mind the increased production costs, the association has said that the State government should set the price at least at ₹. 4,000 per tonne of sugarcane with a recovery level of 9.5 %. The association also urged the government to intervene in tackling the financial burden of the public-sector and cooperative sugar mills.
