Clear dues, save cane farmers

Belgaum: The tug-of-war over sugarcane prices has sidelined the main issue of delayed payments that push the small farmers to the verge of suicide.

But as politics is a game of convenient truths, both the Ruling and the Opposition parties had two different takes on the huge dues, which is perhaps larger than the stacks of cane waiting to be picked up by the sugar mills.

On Friday, all the bitterness over the sugarcane price assumed new dimensions when the issue of ministers and MLAs owning sugar factories, having denied timely payments to the farmers came up in the Upper House which witnessed Leader of the Opposition D.V. Sadananda Gowda and Sugar minister Prakash Hukkeri reading out two different lists of VIP ‘defaulters'.

Gowda, who accused the government of playing into the hands of the powerful sugar lobby, said, "The sugar factories have held back payment to the farmers for long. The CM, who mentioned that (Murugesh) Nirani Sugars owed money to the farmer who committed suicide, forgot all about his own Cabinet colleagues, who owe crores of rupees to the farmers.

In fact, the dues as on November 11, 2013 are Rs 31 crore, and Nirani has no dues. On the contrary, Cabinet ministers have huge dues piled up. For instance, Sanjay Kheny's Bidar mill (Rs 16 crore), Jarkiholi's Ghataprabha (12.8 crore), Satish Jarkiholi Sugars (94 lakh), Bandeppa Kashempur's Bhavani mill (2 crore), Ramesh Jarkiholi's Soubhagyalakshmi (1.5 crore), Shamanur Sugar (11.63 crore) and Shamanur sons' Davangere Sugars (Rs 16.9 crore)."

Dismissing the claims, Sugar minister Prakash Hukkeri stated: "As on date, the sugar factories' due is only Rs 28.9 crore. Shamanur Shivashankarappa has no dues. In fact, in 2012-13, cane worth Rs 7,800 crore was crushed (till March 2013) and the dues were Rs 853 crore. However, after our government took charge, we directed the factories to clear the dues and it is now Rs 28 crore."

Even as the two parties attempt to publicise the truth convenient to them, the latest government records show that Rs 40.9 crore is the total amount which is due, which includes Rs 28.9 crore for 2012-13 and Rs 11.95 crore for the previous year (which includes payments under litigation and loan adjustments).

This year too, the dues continue to accrue as there is least regard for the sugarcane procurement law that sets a deadline of 14 days for sugar mill owners to make payments to farmers from the date of delivery (of sugarcane) to them.