Sangli: The sugarcane farmers are being cheated by the sugar mills using false weights, allege the sugarcane farmers associations.
As many as 14 sugar mills out of 17 mills from the district have begun cane crushing and are crushing 70,000 tonne sugarcane per day. On an average the farmers are cheated by weighing 5000 tonne sugarcane less than the actual weight every day. This comes to Rs 1.5 crore losses per day to the sugarcane farmers.
Mahesh Kharade, district unit head of Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana said, “Number of farmers has complained to us that the sugar mills are cheating farmers while weighing their cane. On an average every farmer is losing one to two tonne of cane due to this.”
“This came to light when farmers weighed their cane on a private weighing machine and later at sugar mill and found the discrepancy. The millers are not accepting the weights done outside the mill premises,” he said.
“The information has been provided to the weights and measurement department. The department conducts surprise checks but have not found any faulty weighing machine so far this indicates that they are not working sincerely,” he said.
“If this continues we will have to launch agitation against this as we fight for FRP,” he said.
