Centre makes sugar daddies pay

New Delhi, Nov. 20: The Opposition parties on Friday compelled the Centre to modify its decision on sugarcane pricing. The government will bring a new bill in Parliament, expected on Monday, that will shift the burden of certain payments to farmers on sugarcane purchases from state governments to sugar mills.

The deputy leader of the BJP in the Lok Sabha, Ms Sushma Swaraj, and the RLD leader, Mr Ajit Singh, who had spearheaded the farmers’ stir, welcomed the government’s decision.

The government retreated from the Sugarcane Control (Amendment) Order 2009 Ordinance less than 24 hours after the Opposition made this an issue cutting across party lines inside and outside Parliament.

They had mobilised farmers in Delhi on Thursday to pressure the government to remove the controversial provisions in the ordinance.

The Centre has now proposed to delete the clause that says state governments will pay the difference between state advised price and the fair and remunerative price for sugarcane.

The government’s offer came at a meeting of all parties in Parliament on Friday afternoon. The SAP will be restored and the difference in payments to farmers over the FRP will have to be paid by sugar mills instead of the government under an amended provision in the controversial ordinance.