Pilibhit: The management of Bajaj Hindusthan Sugar Ltd’s (BHSL) mill in Barkhera has been instructed to clear all pending cane price arrears before the start of the 2024-25 crushing season. The district administration has warned that failure to settle the outstanding payments from the previous year will lead to strict actions., reported Times of India.
Farmer leaders have voiced their frustration with the Uttar Pradesh government, accusing it of ignoring the needs of sugarcane farmers and not enforcing court rulings. V. M. Singh, national convener of the Rashtriya Kisan Majdoor Sangathan (RKMS), criticized the state’s inaction, stating, “All 14 sugar mills of BHSL have been operating with heavy backlogs of cane price for decades, but the state govt never addressed the ordeal of sugarcane growers. A single judge bench of justice Rajan Roy of Allahabad high court had mandated, by virtue of his order dated Dec 23, 2021, that five sugar mills of BHSL operational in Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur, and Lakhimpur Kheri districts, pay interest on the delayed payments of cane price. However, the UP govt failed to ensure compliance with this order. Had it been enforced, the farmers would have treated their held-up payments of cane price as their fixed deposit with the mills.”
