Deputy Commissioner Vipul Bansal has issued an ultimatum to four sugar factories in Kalaburagi and Yadgir districts to come out with the details of the amount deducted as harvesting and transportation charges from the payment made to sugarcane growers for the cane supplied for 2013-14, 2014-15, and 2015-16.
Mr. Bansal said here on Thursday that if they don’t do it, the sugar stocked in their godowns would be seized to recover the dues of growers.
The Deputy Commissioner was chairing a meeting of representatives of Shree Renuka Sugars Ltd., NSL Sugars, and Ugar Sugar Works Ltd. in Kalaburagi district and Core Green Sugar in Shahpur taluk in Yadgir district and the Karnataka State Sugarcane Growers Association.
Specification
Mr. Bansal said that the factories should specify whether the guidelines framed by the government for deducting harvesting and transportation charges were followed.
The representatives of sugar factories did not have the actual figures for the deductions and could not clarify whether the guidelines were followed. They maintained that the factories did not owe any money to growers.
Disputing the claim
The growers, however, disputed these claims and said that the factories had deducted between Rs. 550 and Rs. 900 a tonne of cane supplied by the growers as harvesting and transportation charges.
The representatives of sugarcane growers said that the total pending dues from sugar factories from 2013-14 to 2015-16 was Rs. 39 crore, which included the difference amount of fair remunerative price fixed by the government and the actual payment made to growers and the amount deducted as harvesting and transportation charges.
Mr. Bansal said that the growers need not have any apprehension about the amount due to them. He pointed out that the sugar factories had enough sugar stocks and the district administration would not hesitate to seize them to recover the dues.
While NSL Sugars had a stock of Rs 1.5 lakh quintals; Ugar Sugar Works Ltd. had a stock of 70,000 quintals; and Shree Renuka Sugars Ltd. had a stock of 2.5 lakh quintals.
The details of the stock in Core Green Sugar were not available.
