Even as a fierce debate rages around sugarcane cultivation in drought-hit Maharashtra, the State Sugar Commisionerate has initiated stern action against 20 sugar factories for failing to make 80 per cent fair and remunerative price (FRP) payments to farmers for the 2015-16 season.
Of these, the Commisionerate on Monday cancelled six licences and suspended eight. The remaining six have been directed to pay heavy penalties, according to Vipin Sharma, state sugar commissioner.
“It is incomprehensible why these mills do not sell sugar and pay the farmers as the season is almost ending. The prices are high and the factories now have enough stocks on hand,” Mr. Sharma said, adding that these intransigent factories had been adequately warned of the consequences of defaulting.
State Cooperation Minister Chandrakant Patil had directed all mills to clear the arrears for the 2015-16 season amounting to a whopping Rs 3,100 crore by May 1 and commence with the remaining 20 per cent payment.
Sugar mills in Maharashtra have been struggling to pay FRP dues since the last season after the fall in sugar prices and the 20 factories owe the farmers a staggering Rs 600 crore.
While politicos like National Congress Party (NCP) strongman Sharad Pawar, considered the de facto head of the State’s sugar lobby, have vehemently defended the sugar factories by de-linking them for aggravating the ongoing drought, the Commisionerate has been cracking down on the sugar mills since the beginning of this year.
In January, it suspended the crushing licences of 12 sugar mills for their failure to pay FRP arrears for the 2014-15 season, while suspending licences of seven others for their failure to pay dues to the Chief Minister’s Fund at the rate of Rs 3 per tonne.
