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Farmers resent sugar department move

By Our Staff Reporter

VELLORE, FEB.11. Farmers supplying sugarcane to the Vellore Cooperative Sugar Mills (VCSM) have expressed shock at a proposal of the Department of Sugars to compel the VCSM to sell 50,000 quintals at Rs. 930 per quintal to a private mill for export, as against the price of levy sugar of Rs.1281.91 per quintal and that of non-levy sugar of Rs. 1335 per quintal.

At a time when the farmers were hit by the delay in payment by the mills for the sugarcane supplied by them in the previous season, the latest proposal, which was bound to entail a heavy loss to the mills, was causing concern to them.

K. Kanniah Naidu, president of the VCSM Sugarcane Producers Association, has in a statement said the move would cause a loss ranging from Rs.1.75 crores to Rs. 2 crores to the mills, which would mean a further delay in payment by the mills to the farmers. This delay had resulted in a situation where the farmers who had taken loans from cooperative banks were forced to pay penal interest for their inability to repay the loan. "Not only were the farmers affected but the sugar mill too has become sick in view of such wrong policies of the Department of Sugars," he said.

On the other hand, the employees of the sugar mills too were worried about the development since they feared that such policies on the part of the Government would lead to losses to the mills and consequent delay in payment of salaries to the workers. Enquiries with official sources revealed that while a proposal was mooted for the sale of sugar at Rs.930 per quintal to a private mill for export purposes, no orders had so far been issued by the Department of Sugars.

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