Opposition readies bitter pill for UPA govt over sugarcane pricing

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

• Discount UK Shopping

Related Articles

Rising milk prices may fuel inflation: CitiOpen mkt sale cools wheat pricesFood prices to soften on better output: MontekNafed to import 25,000 tonnes of Canadian yellow p...

New Delhi: While the heat generated over sugarcane pricing is threatening to delay crushing in the second-largest sugar producing state of Uttar Pradesh, major opposition parties including the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) have geared up to oppose the ordinance replacing the Centre’s statutory minimum price (SMP) with the fair and remunerative price (FRP) in Parliament.

Samajwadi Party leader, Mulayam Singh Yadav on Wednesday met with prominent farmers’ leader and Rashtriya Lok Dal president, Ajit Singh and vowed to oppose the ordinance tooth and nail both inside and outside the Parliament.

“We will ensure that farmers are not allowed to suffer because of the Centre’s policies,” Singh said. Earlier, BJP along with the Left parties have also opposed, the Essential Commodities (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2009, which will seek to replace an earlier ordinance promulgated to replace the SMP with the FRP.

A group of farmers are already sitting on a ‘dharna’ outside Parliament building.

The FRP calculated the sugarcane price (the minimum rate which mills should pay to the growers) at around Rs 130 per quintal, far less than farmers demand of Rs 280 per quintal.

The mechanism also laid down that states will have to bear the burden if they wish to declare any price (state advised price) over the FRP. It was apparently meant to discourage states to declare their own sugarcane prices.

Second largest sugarcane growing state of Uttar Pradesh, along with Punjab and Haryana, opposed the Centre’s ordinance and declared their own price, which was higher than the Centre fixed price.

Although, later, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar announced that FRP was just a floor price and mills were free to pay growers more than the price, but farmers were reluctant to sell their produce at lower price.