IEP Chandigarh, January 25
Haryana Chief Secretary Mr. Sanjeev Kaushal said that keeping in view the interest of the farmers, the Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal has today announced an increase of Rs. 10 in the State Advisory Price (SAP) of sugarcane. He said that now the sugarcane farmers of Haryana would get Rs. 372 per quintal from the existing rate of Rs 362 per quintal. Moreover, the farmers of Haryana are getting enormous benefits because of the smooth payment mechanism to the farmers as compared to the neighbouring states like Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. This fact is evident that in the current crushing season, Haryana Government has made a payment of Rs. 620 crore to the sugarcane farmers whereas the payment of only Rs. 230 crore has been made to the farmers across Punjab. The Chief Secretary was presiding over a virtual meeting regarding management of sugarcane availability in cooperative sugar mills from Yamunanagar today. On this occasion, Additional Chief Secretary, Cooperative Department, Sh. T.V.S.N Prasad, Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture Department, Sh. Sumita Misra, Director General of Police, Sh. P.K. Agrawal, Deputy Commissioners and other senior officers were present through video conferencing.Complete payment till July 5 last year made to Haryana sugarcane farmers madeDirecting the Deputy Commissioners and Managing Directors of the sugar mills of concerned districts to interact with farmers and unions to aware them regarding the recent increase in SAP and also inform them regarding the in-time payment of sugarcane to farmers by the state government. He said that Haryana has made complete payment of sugarcane farmers till July 5 last year, whereas farmers of neighbouring states are yet to receive the payment of sugarcane. He further directed the officers to provide information about the facilities and the price of sugarcane to the farmers so that they do not get misled by anyone.Mr. Kaushal directed the MD of sugar mills and district agriculture officers to urge the farmers to bring their sugarcane to the mills at the earliest so that they would not suffer huge loss as their crop would dry up which would eventually lose the recovery. Moreover, the farmers may suffer a delay in sowing the next crop. He directed the officers to provide required facilities to the farmers in bringing their produce to the mills. He directed them to ensure and make efforts to resume the operation of private sugar mills. Keeping the interest of farmers, the state government has raised the SAP of sugarcane by Rs, 10.Loan of Rs 1005 crore to cooperative sugar mills, subsidy of Rs 329 crore to cooperative and private sugar mills in HaryanaMr. Kaushal said that keeping in view the interest of the sugarcane farmers in Haryana, a loan of Rs. 1005 crore has been given to the cooperative sugar mills while Rs. 329 crore has been provided as subsidy to the cooperative and private sugar mills. Unalike to the neighbouring states, the Haryana government is consistently increasing the price of sugarcane every year. He said that this year also the SAP of sugarcane has been increased by Rs 10.A total of 7.45 crore quintals of sugarcane is crushed in Haryana every yearIn the meeting, Haryana Additional Chief Secretary, Cooperative Department,Mr. T.V.S.N Prasad informed that cooperative sugar mills crush 4.95 crore quintals of sugarcane every year while private sugar mills crush 3 lakh quintals of sugarcane. In this way, a total of 7.45 crore quintals of sugarcane is crushed every year. He said that so far this year, 40 percent sugarcane has been procured for crushing while 60 percent sugarcane is yet to arrive for crushing this year.Mr. Prasad said that at present the sugar mills of the state are in loss of Rs. 5293 crores and our average sugar production is Rs. 4341 per quintal, which is much higher than the selling rate of Rs. 3400 per quintal. He said that according to the report of the committee constituted under the chairmanship of the Agriculture Minister, the rate of sugarcane was fixed at Rs.370 per quintal, but keeping in view the interest of the farmers, the Chief Minister announced to increase the rate of sugarcane to Rs.372 per quintal this year. He said that the medium variety rate of sugarcane in Punjab is Rs.370 per quintal whereas it is Rs.372 per quintal in Haryana.
