Farmer groups and activists have protested against the Uttar Pradesh government’s decision to waive Rs. 2,000 crore that sugarcane industrialists owed the farmers.
After the Allahabad High Court order of January 2014, farmers in the State were to get over Rs. 2000 crore as interest on the arrears which cane mills owned them in the years 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15.
But the State government waived the sum on the pretext that the sugarcane industry was going through a rough time. Several farmer groups like the Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan have protested against the move.
The interest amount for the years 2012-13 and 2013-14 of over Rs. 1,300 crore was waived by the State government on May 22, 2015, by entertaining the request of mill owners that they were not in a position to pay interest for delay in payment of cane price to the cane-growers as they incurred losses allegedly due to reduction in the price of sugar. The State government through a Cabinet order passed last month further waived over Rs. 700 crore that was to be paid as interest for the season 2014-15.
V.M. Singh, convener of the Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan, who challenged the waiver in the High Court told The Hindu: “ In times of agrarian crisis when over 1,153 farmers committed suicide or died due to shock during last year’s hailstorm, instead of helping them, the Uttar Pradesh government has made their life more difficult by waiving the interest of over Rs. 2000 crore awarded to the farmers by the High Court.”
Mr. Singh said the State did not have the power to waive the interest as its power to do so under Section 17(3) of the UP Sugarcane (Regulation of Purchase & Supply) Act, 1953, came to an end by a federal legislation on 18.05.1968. and there was no legal impediment for payment of 15 per cent interest for delay in payment by mills beyond 14 days as was provided under the Sugarcane Control Order,1966.
“The waiver was done under the garb of public interest. But the fact on the ground is that the mill owners who were given the benefit of Rs. 2000 crore, are the same mill owners who have more than doubled the number of their mills, from 40 to 95 mills in last 10 years. My question is what kind of public interest is being served by robbing 50 lakh farmers who are living in misery and are committing suicides on regular basis, of their hard earned money they need,” asked Mr. Singh.
There was no logic to the waiver as the poor farmers also take loans and pay interests and many of them commit suicide because of their inability to pay back the interest, argued Mr. Singh and said: “When the farmer pays interest and penalties to the State for delay in returning the loan, it is highly unfair if the State should rob the farmer by waiving the interest that is due from the mills”. He termed the waiver of Rs. 2000 crore a “blatant contempt” of the High Court order which in January 2014 directed the government to ensure that the farmers also get the interest on the arrears.
The govt waived the sum saying that the sugarcane industry was going through a rough time
