The politics over sugarcane, simmering for months, has come to a boil once again. Agriculture Minister Rajnath Singh has written a terse letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav asking him to stop complaining and accept the sugarcane package offered by the Centre for farmers in ‘‘dire straits’’.Sugarcane farmers are caught between the Centre and state government and are yet to get a single rupee out of the Rs 680 crore relief package announced by the Centre in September last year. The farmers had not got their dues for 2002-3 because of the difference between the Centre-announced Statutory Minimum Price (SMP) and the State Advised Price (SAP). The Central package meant providing loans from the Rs 680 crore to state governments at four per cent per annum. The CM had written twice to Rajnath Singh asking the Centre to provide the difference between the SAP and the SMP but not as a loan to the state government. According to Singh, the package with a few conditions is ready but UP is not accepting it. ‘‘Uttaranchal and Bihar have already accepted this package,’’ Singh said in the letter.The UP government indicated its inability to accept this package as a loan as they maintain that this is the responsibility of the sugar mills. Instead, the state government wants assistance to be provided to sugar mills directly as soft loan They have said that it will not be appropriate for the state government to take loans for private mills and bear the burden. Uttar Pradesh has the maximum difference between the SMP and SAP — the SMP is Rs 79, and the SAP is Rs 91. The difference between the two comes to a whopping Rs 655 crore. As UP has a large number of private mills, the private sector’s share is Rs 490 crore. With another round of letters between the Centre and the State, the farmers seem to have been completely forgotten.
