Sugar to leave a bitter taste in House

NEW DELHI: The winter session of Parliament, which kicks off on Thursday, is expected to see a stormy start with the SP and RLD deciding to disrupt proceeding of the House over the Centre’s ordinance for uniform pricing for sugarcane.

RLD chief Ajit Singh, who met SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Wednesday, said, “ We will not allow the House to function until Centre scraps the sugar ordinance.”

The principal Opposition party, BJP, has also decided to bring an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha against the sugar pricing ordinance.

A meeting of the BJP parliamentary party core group, held in NEw Delhi on Tuesday night to chart out the strategy for ensuing session, decided to capitalise on the growing discontent among the sugracane growers, especially those hailing from the Hindi heartland, against the Manmohan Singh government’s decision to promulgate the Sugarcane (Control) Amendment Order, 2009.

By this ordinance, the government has replaced the statutory minimum price (SMP) with a fair and remunerative price (F&RP ), and made it imperative for state governments which have announced a state advisory price (SAP) for sugarcane to bear the burden caused by the difference between the F&RP and the SAP.

The order is being seen by state governments and farmers’ associations as being loaded in favour of the mill-owners , which will only have to pay the F&RP . The SAP has always been more that the SMP by up to 20-50 per cent.

The move has brought the cane-growers , especially in UP, on the warpath. Hoping to cash in on their anger, Opposition parties have made common cause with a section of the ruling alliance to corner the Manmohan Singh government in the two Houses of Parliament during the winter session.

The entire Opposition bloc, as also parties such as SP, BSP and RJD, which extend outside support to the ruling alliance, have declared their plans of opposing the order, trashing it as being “anti-poor and anti-farmer”.

While the government may be able to survive the Opposition onslaught in the Lok Sabha on account of its numerical strength, it may encounter a problem in the Rajya Sabha, where it does not have the numbers to carry a legislation through.

BJP, during its parliamentary party core group meeting, also decided to raise the Madhu Koda and 2G spectrum allocations scams, besides a host of other issues during the session.

The ruling side, however, was hoping to weather the storm. On the eve of the winter session, it finalised the legislative and financial business to be taken up during the 33-day-long session, which concludes on December 21.

Among the new bills slated for introduction and passage are the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill, 2009, and the twin pieces of legislation of the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill and the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill.