The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Sugar units in A.P. ordered to clear farmers’ arrears

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Friday, Jun 13, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Sugar units in A.P. ordered to clear farmers’ arrears

Special Correspondent

Four units in Telangana promise to clear arrears
A.P. to go ahead with modernisation of factories

HYDERABAD: An ultimatum has been served on private sugar factories to clear by July 15 the payment of arrears to farmers for the sugarcane crushed or else face action.

Andhra Pradesh Minister for Sugar Industry J. Geeta Reddy said that the government would invoke provisions of the Revenue Recovery Act to collect the arrears on behalf of the farmers if the factory managements did not make the payments before the deadline.

Bargaining

She indulged in some hard bargaining with representatives of the factory managements at an hour-long meeting here on Thursday when four factories in the Telangana region gave a firm assurance that they would clear the arrears within the next few days.

Briefing reporters later along with Cooperation Minister Mohd. Fareeduddin, Ms Geeta Reddy announced that Ganapathi Sugars (Sangareddy), Trident (Zaheerabad), Gayathri (Nizamabad) and Nizam Deccan Sugars (Bodhan), which together owed over Rs. 32 crore to the farmers, furnished a time-table for clearing the arrears. M/s Ganapathi Sugars would, however, make the payments in the form of supply of fertilizer to farmers. Principal Secretary, Industries, B. Sam Bob, and Commissioner for Sugar K. Lakshmi Narayana, who took part in the talks, pointed out that a sugar factory was bound to pay the statutory minimum price (SMP) announced by the Union Government at Rs. 950 a tonne of cane within 14 days of crushing.

If there was any financial difficulty, the purchase tax fixed at Rs. 100 a tonne which the State government transferred to farmers, could be remitted a little later. Ms Geeta Reddy said the government was going ahead with the project to modernise and expand five cooperative sugar factories, though the project cost had gone up from Rs. 110 crore to Rs. 204 crore.

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