Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh on Thursday said if the Uttar Pradesh government was unable to get the standing sugarcane crop crushed in the State, then it should arrange for the crop to be used in other States so that farmers did not suffer.
In a statement issued here, he demanded that sugarcane growers be paid their dues and closed sugar mills asked to begin crushing, or farmers be compensated for their loss.
Charging the government with giving in to the demands of sugar millers, he said farmers were being ignored. “The Samajwadi Party came to power on the promise that it will raise the State Advised Price of cane by 50 per cent, by keeping the price at Rs. 280 a quintal. But it has betrayed farmers,” he said adding that the input cost for sugarcane growers had gone up by Rs. 23 a quintal.
U.P. millers have not started cane crushing as they say that they cannot pay more than Rs. 225 a quintal to farmers, who are demanding Rs. 320. They have sought a financial package from the Centre to help them as sugar prices had declined and stocks are in surplus.
