In a partial relief to sugarcane farmers, Naraingarh sugar mills limited has cleared the dues of the previous cane crushing season, but another payment delay in the current season seems imminent.
A payment of around Rs 22.74 crore of the previous season was pending when the sugar mills started operations on November 15. Sugar mills have been releasing dues in installments. As per the mills, the pending dues were cleared on Tuesday and the payment for the current season has also started. However, farmers said the payment in the current season was running late by over a month and it seemed dues of crores of rupees would accumulate before the season ended.
So far, nearly 14 lakh quintal of sugarcane worth around Rs 54 crore has been crushed, but the payment of only around Rs 1 crore has been cleared. Though Naraingarh Sugar Mills is private, it has been run under the supervision of the Haryana Government since 2019.
Sugarcane farmer and Bhartiya Kisan Union (Charuni) leader Rajiv Sharma said: “The mills has cleared the payment of the previous season, but the issue of delayed payment continues to be a matter of concern for the sugarcane farmers here. I have delivered nearly 1,400 quintal sugarcane in this season so far. However, there has been no payment. Due to the delayed payments, a number of farmers are forced to deliver their produce to crushers at cheaper rates as they need money to meet expenses.”
Sanyukt Ganna Kisan Samiti, president Singara Singh, “Every year, farmers are forced to wait for the next season to begin to get the payment of the previous season. The government and the mills authorities must understand that the farmers also need money to clear their dues and labour charges. The state government and the mills authorities should find some permanent solution to this problem.”
Meanwhile, Naraingarh Sugar Mills Ltd unit head VK Singh said: “The dues of the previous season were cleared yesterday and the payment for the ongoing season has also started. We will be clearing date-wise payments to ensure that farmers get their complete payments. So far, nearly 14 lakh quintal sugarcane worth around Rs 54 crore has been crushed and we have sugar and molasses stocks of around Rs 34 crore, and after selling the stocks the payments will be regularly given to the farmers.”
“Though, we have set a target to crush around 50 lakh quintal, efforts are being made to ensure that the mills get at least over 45 lakh quintals for crushing. The recovery of the sugar mills is very good and we will make all efforts to ensure that not much dues are left at the end of the season. The farmers are requested to deliver their produce at the sugar mills so that it get adequate sugarcane for crushing and their payments are cleared in time”, he added.
