With the sugarcane crushing season coming to a close in the state, the Uttar Pradesh government has lost no time and has started cracking the whip on errant sugar factories for non-payment of cane arrears. In a late night development on Wednesday, the state government issued recovery certificates (RCs) against 12 sugar factories, including three belonging to the Mawana group, two to the UK Modi group and one belonging to the KK Birla group.
Of the three Mawana units, Mawana and Naglamal are located in Meerut district of western Uttar Pradesh and Titawi is located in Muzaffarnagar district. While Mawana unit has nearly R40 crores balance payment due to the farmers, Naglamal has nearly R14 crore and Titawi approximately R30 crore.
The Modi group factories, Malakpur in Baghpat district has Rs 57 crore balance payment remaining while Modinagar in Ghaziabad has R23 crore remaining to be cleared. The Birla group’s Rosa factory in Shahjahanpur has dues amounting to nearly R 9 crore pending, while JHV group’s Padrauna and Gadaura units have nearly R3 crore and R7 crore balance payment pending.
Apart from these big houses, some individual units such as Gagalheri in Saharanpur, Majhawali in Moradabad, Neyoli in Etah and Gopi in Aligarh, too have been issued Rcs for the remaining amount due as cane payment.
It may be mentioned that the Uttar Pradesh government had asked the sugar mills to pay up the balance payment as the season was coming to a close or face stringent action. In a review meeting of the sugarcane department recently, the minister for cane development, Naseemuddin Siddiqui had directed officials to issue RCs against mills that have defaulted in payment to sugarcane farmers as the state government did not wish that the farmers should suffer on behalf of the lax attitude of the sugar mills..
According to reliable sources, the government’s prompt step in this direction is due to the fact that it wants to send a message that it is concerned about the welfare of the farmers and would not let them suffer at any cost. ?Usually, this step is taken by the government after a few months elapse after the end of the sugarcane crushing season. But with elections due in the next year, the state government does not want to take any chances,? said the source requesting anonymity.
As per law, if sugar mills do not pay arrears within 14 days after procuring the cane to the farmers, they have to pay 15% interest over and above the arrears. This applies to all sugar mills, be it in the private sector or the state sugar corporation or sugar co-operative mills. And once the RCs are issued, the district administration has the right to recover the cane dues of the defaulting mills by auctioning their sugar stocks to raise the money, which will then be used to clear the arrears.
