Posted by:  abhaytiw on ( 24-Nov-09 14:25 )
| | | Price : BSE: Rs 132.75 ( 5.48 % ), NSE: Rs. 132.50 ( 5.20 % ) | LUCKNOW, 23 NOV: A battle that might have yielded rewards if fought out in the state changed course and was fought instead at the Centre. There were victory celebrations when the Centre declared as null Clause 3B of the Sugarcane (Control) Order of 1966, which had put the onus on the state government to pay the difference between the Centre’s Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) and the state government’s State Advisory Price (SAP) for
sugarcane. But farmers of UP, who went all the way to Delhi to demand a higher price for their produce, are today a confused lot and blaming Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Mr Ajit Singh for “misleading” them. “They are feeling betrayed by Mr Ajit Singh,” Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan convenor Mr VM Singh told The Statesman over the telephone from Amroha in UP’s Jyoti Baa Phule Nagar district.
Although the hue and cry over sugarcane pricing began only last week, after a massive demonstration in the Capital led by Mr Ajit Singh and Samajwadi Party leader Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, it was as far back as 24 October that the Mayawati government raised the SAP for sugarcane to Rs 170, Rs165 and Rs162.50 per quintal. Prices were raised to Rs.165 for the general variety of sugarcane, which forms about 80 percent of the state’s produce, Rs 170 per quintal for the “early” yielding variety that forms about 20 percent of the produce, and Rs.162.50 per quintal for the “currently rejected” variety, which forms barely five per cent of the overall sugarcane grown in the state.
In the face of opposition from sugarcane farmers, who were demanding an SAP of Rs 280 per quintal, Uttar Pradesh Cabinet secretary Mr Shashank Shekhar Singh said here on 9 November that a mutually agreeable price would be worked out with the approval of the farmers and mill owners, with the government acting as a facilitator. “It is strange that the Mayawati government had nothing to say about the thousands of crores that her government would have to pay if the controversial Clause were still in place,i.e., the state government would have to pay the difference between the FRP and the higher SAP. But the said Clause was repealed by the Centre because of loud and misleading demonstrations led by the Opposition parties ~ Rashtriya Lok Dal, the Samajwadi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party. These parties misled farmers to believe that the Centre was to blame for farmers’ not getting their due,” Mr Singh told The Statesman.
“With people like Mrs Sushma Swaraj of the BJP stating clearly that a ‘battle’ had been won and the states would have to pay the SAP now, farmers became even more confused,” he added.
Mr Singh contended that the repeal of Clause 3(B) of the Sugarcane (Control) Order of 1966, did not affect UP at all.
He explained that according to an Supreme Court ruling in 2004, “by Clause 3 A of the Sugarcane (Control) Order 1966, the SAP was statutory on the basis of agreements executed in Form 3, which is compulsory for maintaining the Reservation Orders in UP”.
Even with Clause 3 B repealed, sugarcane farmers are entitled to SAP. “But for the meddling of ill-informed politicians, if sugarcane farmers had concentrated on agitating for higher SAP in Lucknow, instead of going to Delhi, they might have been able to persuade the state government to give in to their demand for an increase of pricing to Rs 280 per quintal. Instead, they are faced with losing much of the crop,” Mr Singh maintained.
Selling to kolhus (molasses makers) too is now a loss-making proposition for farmers. Taking advantage of the prevailing confusion, kolhus have decreased the earlier Rs 140 per quintal they were paying farmers, to Rs 130 per quintal.
Yet another farmers’ lobby in western UP, the Bharatiya Kisan Union, which has the controversial Mr Mahendra Singh Tikait at its helm, all but washed its hands off the entire affair.
“As far as the BKU is concerned, it is not up to the farmers to whether they want to carry the issue of sugarcane pricing further as an agitation. The BKU simply wants the UP government to discuss the issue at a meeting attended by all concerned parties from the mill owners and farmers to sugar industry leaders and sugar consumers. I wrote to Miss Mayawati yesterday urging her to hold such a meeting,” said Mr Rakesh Tikait, son of Mr Mahendra Singh Tikait, and national spokesperson of the BKU.
“Thanks to the confusion created by politicians sugarcane farmers are still suffering,” Mr VM Singh said.
During a Press conference called yesterday, UP Cabinet secretary Mr Shashank Singh said the state government had already announced the SAP for the current cane crushing season and the cane growers could not be paid less than this price, implying that the SAP would not be increased.
The Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan has threatened a “massive” farmers’ stir in Lucknow to be held on 15 and 16 December.
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