‘Govt must help cane suppliers to pvt mills too’

Chennai

“The Central government provided Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) to sugarcane farmers to the tune of Rs 2,550 per tonne in the year 2018-19. In addition, the State government is providing Rs 200 extra to farmers who supply to the government sugar mills. The same amount should be given to those who support the private mills in the state,” said Rajkumar, President, SISFA.

The State government is providing the extra amount to support farmers for the upcoming Deepavali festival. However, 3 lakh farmers who supply sugarcane to private sugar mills have been left out. Hence, the aggrieved farmers met Agriculture Department Secretary Gagandeep Singh Bedi and demanded the assistance.

Meanwhile, farmers on Monday staged a protest at the Thanjavur Collectorate, demanding payment of the arrears for the State Advisory Price (SAP) for the sugarcane supplied during last two years, which has accumulated to a total of Rs 30 crore.

The farmers, who supplied sugarcane to the state owned Arignar Anna Sugar Mills (AASM), demanded the payment of arrears of Rs 450 per tonne, which is the difference between SAP (fixed by the state government) and Fixed Remunerative Price (FRP, which is decided by the union government).

They pointed out that Rs 900 per tonne was pending as arrears since the AASM did not pay the SAP for the crushing years 2015-16 and 2016-17.