Amid farmers' stir, BSP raises issue of sugarcane dues

After lying low for some time, Mayawati-led BSP has chosen to lob a politically sensitive matter in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh - the issue of non-payment of farmers’ dues by sugarcane mills - amid the farmers’ agitation, keeping the sugar belt in the western part of the state politically sensitive.

Mayawati’s associate and BSP parliamentarian Danish Ali on Thursday drew Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attention to the Yogi Adityanath-led UP government’s “inaction” in making mill owners release payment to the sugarcane farmers, even as he reminded Modi of his promise of timely payment to these farmers made at an election rally, and that unlike the BJP government in UP, Opposition-ruled Maharashtra has a better record in delivering what is due to sugarcane farmers.

“According to the state government's own documents, as of May 12, the total sugarcane payment for the state's sugar mills was Rs 32,348.66 crore. Even in the calculation of statutory arrears 14 days after sugarcane supply, the figure was Rs 31,487.75 crore,” Ali said in a letter to Modi. He also made it a point to stress that the worst affected farmers are from the western UP.


“Most of the non-paying sugar mills are in western Uttar Pradesh, while the region is the most important sugarcane producing region. This region has been the carrier of ‘Haritkranti’, or green revolution, which includes Amroha, Hapur, Bijnor, Moradabad, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Saharanpur, Muzaffar Nagar, Shamli, Baghpat, Bulandshahr district,” Ali said.