Bajaj mill warned over pending sugarcane arrears

Pilibhit: The management of Bajaj Hindusthan Sugar Ltd's (BHSL) mill in Barkhera town has been directed to clear all outstanding cane price arrears before the start of the 2024-25 crushing season. The district administration warned that failure to settle the previous year's dues would result in stringent action.
As of Sunday, the mill owed farmers nearly Rs 97 crore in unpaid dues from the last crushing session.According to official records from the district cane department, the mill had procured 57 lakh quintals of sugarcane worth Rs 210 crore, but had only paid 53.9% of this amount. The last payment was made on Dec 25, 2023, despite legal requirements that payments must be settled within 14 days of procurement.
Farmer leaders have criticised the UP govt for neglecting the interests of sugarcane growers and failing to enforce court orders. V M Singh, the national convener of the Rashtriya Kisan Majdoor Sangathan (RKMS), said, "All 14 sugar mills of BHSL have been operating with heavy backlogs of cane price for decades, but the state govt never addressed the ordeal of sugarcane growers."
"A single judge bench of justice Rajan Roy of Allahabad high court had mandated, by virtue of his order dated Dec 23, 2021, that five sugar mills of BHSL operational in Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur, and Lakhimpur Kheri districts, pay interest on the delayed payments of cane price. However, the UP govt failed to ensure compliance with this order. Had it been enforced, the farmers would have treated their held-up payments of cane price as their fixed deposit with the mills," Singh added.
He added, "The district administration is required to review the updated status of the concerned sugar mill's sale of sugar stocks and by-products — molasses, pressed mud, bagasse — as under the tagging system imposed in UP following an order dated May 5, 2004, of the Supreme Court's constitution bench. It seems that the mill has utilised the earmarked share of the sale value in other areas instead of paying the farmers."