Ambala: While Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini announced on Tuesday that he was going to set up a cooperative sugar mill in Naraingarh, several sugarcane farmers and their leaders termed it a ‘Chunavi Jumla’, reports The Tribune.
The views of the farmers, as well as their leaders, came during the Jan Ashirwad Rally in Naraingarh, where the Chief Minister discussed the frequent communications against the nonpayment from the Naraingarh Sugar Mills Limited, which is putting the farmers in huge handicap. He pledged to set up a cooperative mill if his party was voted into power.
However, Rajiv Sharma, a spokesperson for the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Charuni) and a sugarcane farmer from Naraingarh, expressed his disappointment. “Although Naraingarh Sugar Mills Limited is a private entity, it has been under the Haryana Government’s supervision since 2019. Despite this, farmers are repeatedly forced to protest to receive their payments. The mill still owes over Rs 22 crore from the previous season, which ended in March. Instead of proposing a new mill, the Chief Minister should have prioritized clearing the existing dues. That would have provided immediate relief to the farmers,” he stated.
Echoing these sentiments, Singara Singh, President of the Sanyukt Ganna Kisan Samiti, criticized the timing of the promises. “The commitments made during election periods are nothing more than ‘election gimmicks.’ The government has made several such promises in the past that remain unfulfilled. We organized a tractor march on August 5 and planned a ‘Jal Satyagraha’ for August 12. Although we were assured by senior government officials that the payments would be cleared by August 18, the imposition of the model code of conduct has delayed the process,” Singh explained.
Singh further announced that after a meeting with sugarcane farmers, it was decided to resume the agitation once the new government takes charge. “We will hold a panchayat next month to discuss the role of farmers in the upcoming elections and launch a campaign against the government. Our goal is to raise awareness among the people about the promises made to farmers that have not been fulfilled,” he added.
Vinod Rana, the president of Ganna Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, stated that he was not satisfied at all and added that since the CM belonged to Naraingarh, the farmers were quite expecting from him. “We were expecting him to say something on the issue of delayed payments, but there was no mention of it for clearing the dues. We recently submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister in this regard, but the dues remain unpaid. Opening a cooperative sugar mill in Naraingarh is also not easy as two sugar mills are already functioning in Naraingarh and Yamunanagar. The BJP has been in power for 10 years and if they were serious about opening a new mill, they should have started the process earlier,” Rana said.
