Kolhapur: Delay in the setting up of a committee to fix the final price of sugarcane to be paid to the farmers has annoyed the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana leader Raju Shetti, reports The Times of India.
The state government, for the last two years, is allowing the sugar mills to pay cane bills to the farmers in two installments. The mills pay the first installment based on the sugar recovery rate after crushing their cane and the second installment is paid after the crushing season of the mills end.
“Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had assured us in November to set up a panel within one month but the crushing season is about to end and the government has not fulfilled its promise. The farmers will have no choice but to accept what the millers would pay them,” said Shetti.
The government is working under the pressure from millers and delaying the setting up of the panel, alleged Shetti.
“Once the panel is set up, we will force the millers to pay the final price for the last season and ask them to pay the extra sum,” he said.
