Muzaffarnagar: The secretaries of sugarcane societies have filed complaints against three sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli district for allegedly not paying them pending dues from the previous crushing season, to the tune of Rs 309.46 crore.
District cane officer (DCO) Vijay Bahadur Singh said, “Action has been taken against Shamli mill, Unn mill and Thana Bhawan sugar mill.”
The DCO added, “We have been told that the management of these sugar mills is trying to sell sugar stock stored in the mills so that they could clear all dues of the farmers.”
After giving enough time to pay the dues of the farmers, three sugar mills failed to pay back, hence, district magistrate (DM) Jasjit Kaur ordered filing of cases against these mills, the DCO said.
Slamming the authorities, Rajan Jawala, a local farmer whose Rs 3 lakh is still pending with Unn sugar mill, said, “We are suffering. No one is paying attention to this issue. The new crushing season is about to start but the sugar mill has failed to pay my last year’s dues. So, how are we going to get the early payment for this season?”
Another farmer, Deepak Kumar Sharma, said, “The Shamli sugar mill owed me Rs 4 lakh and there is no one who can give me a satisfactory answer when I would get back my money. Now, I heard that the Shamli administration has filed a case against the sugar mill.”
According to sources, these sugar mills had cleared Rs 833.92 crore of the outstanding Rs 1,142.96 crore till now, which is over 70% of the amount. But action is being taken for the “pending dues”.
DM Jasjit Kaur had recently presided over a meeting of district officers and reviewed the payment issue.
The above news was originally posted on timesofindia.indiatimes.com
