Sugarcane cultivators attached to a defunct private sugar mill in Thanjavur district have pinned their hopes on the district administration to get pending payment of around ₹99 crore from the mill.
The private sugar mill has failed to distribute ₹6.53 crore to 1,294 farmers towards supply of cane during the crushing season in 2016-17 and ₹28.64 crore for the next season before it moved a solvency petition in 2019. As cane price arrears are treated as arrears of land revenue under the Essential Commodities Act, steps initiated by the Thanjavur district administration ensured recovery of ₹4.44 crore and remitted to the accounts of the cane suppliers.
However, the balance amount of ₹52.50 crore (with interest calculated in 2019) remains unpaid as per Form C filed before the Interim Resolution Personnel (IRP) by the district administration in May last
Though the outstanding amount worked out to ₹78.54 crore as in June 2019, the subsequent interest to be paid by the company on this unpaid amount had taken the total outstanding amount to ₹99 crore.
At this juncture, according to Sundara Vimalanathan, secretary, Thanjavur District Cauvery Farmers Welfare Protection Association, a distillery company that offered to take over the defunct sugar mill had reportedly agreed to pay around ₹52 crore to farmers to ‘clear the outstanding payment’.
Terming the `offer’ unethical, Mr. Sundara Vimalanathan has exhorted the district administration to put forth the demands of the cultivators for full payment with interest at the meeting convened by the IRP on February 7 and do justice to the farming community.
