Sugar buffer stock notified, farmers say it’s sweet-talk

According to technical details that are being framed now, the money would be given to the farmers in the form of insurance and interest costs incurred on the stocks lying in the mills as on October 1, 2002. The quantity exported will also be taken into consideration.

The mills still have enough to sell in the market after obtaining court orders to sell off their stock. This leads to a glut and the prices go farther down.

Though the Government is going to be spending Rs 412 crore on the buffer stock from the sugar development fund and the banks, the question looming large is whether the mills will actually use it to pay the farmers’ dues. ‘‘We are trying to get over that problem by devising a form that says that the factories will use the money to pay off their cane dues,’’ said R.P. Singhal who heads the sugar directorate.

The standoff between the farmers and the mill-owners is that the latter want to pay them the State Advised Price (SAP) — which is lower — fixed by the state rather than the Centre’s Statutory Minimum Price (SMP). Farmers are demanding that any support given to industries should be to those that pay the SMP.

‘‘There should also be some mechanism in the Government to differentiate between those mills that have been paying their arrears to financial institutes and state, Central government dues. Those mills that do not honour these commitments should not benefit from this subsidy,’’ said Kisan Coordination Committee spokesperson Madan Diwan.