CHANDIGARH: As the sugarcane crushing season is going to kickstart from November 15, cane farmers in Punjab are still awaiting release of their over Rs 53 crore payment from private sugar mills, out of which Rs 43 crore pertains to the 2019-20 crushing season.
Wahid Sandhar Sugars Limited at Phagwara in Kapurthala district has to pay Rs 43.01 crore for the 2019-20 crushing season and Rs 7 crore for 2020-21 out of the total outstanding payment. Among the total seven private sugar mills operational in Punjab, Bhagwanpura Sugar Mills at Dhuri in Sangrur district is another mill with a big outstanding payment of nearly Rs 2.56 crore for 2020-21. Private sugar mills were to pay Rs1,880 crore to cane growers for 2020-21, out of which Rs 10.72 crore is still outstanding.
“We are pursuing the process of recovery under the Revenue Recovery Act and the Kapurthala deputy commissioner has also attached properties of the directors of Phagwara sugar mill for recovering the amount,” Punjab cane commissioner Dr Gurvinder Singh told TOI. Rest of the private sugar mills are in the process of releasing the payment, he added.
Apart from seven private sugar mills, there are nine cooperative sugar mills in the state. As the state assembly elections are scheduled early next year, this is for the first time in the last four years that the Congress government has cleared all the outstanding dues of cooperative sugar mills till date before the start of crushing season. The cooperative sugar mills have cleared payment of Rs 486 crore for 2019-20 and Rs 472 crore for the year 2020-21.
