Tamil Nadu - Cuddalore   

Remove sugar from essential commodities list, say cane farmers

Photo: C. Venkatachalapathy

PRESSING FOR DEMANDS: Sugarcane farmers staging a demonstration in Cuddalore on Friday. —

CUDDALORE: Sugarcane farmers have urged the Centre to remove sugar from the essential commodities list. They also urged the Tamil Nadu government to fix the State Advisory Price (SAP) for cane at Rs. 2,000 a tonne. If these demands are not conceded, the farmers will not raise sugarcane from the next season in 2008-2009, according to R.V. Giri, State general secretary of the Consortium of Farmers’ Associations.

The farmers, led by K.V. Kannan, State president of the farmers’ wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party, and Mr. Giri, staged a demonstration in front of the Collectorate here on Friday.

Mr. Giri told The Hindu that of the total sugar production, 55 per cent was used by sweet-meat shops, 15 per cent by soft drinks manufacturers and 10 per cent by bakeries and toffee manufacturers. Only the remaining 20 per cent was directly purchased by consumers. Hence, sugar need not be considered an essential item and should be taken out of the essential commodities list, he said.

Mr. Giri said that the Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices had fixed the statutory minimum price for sugarcane at Rs. 1,550 a tonne. The State government, as was the practice, could add Rs. 450 a tonne, so as to take the SAP to Rs. 2,000 a tonne.

He noted that the State government, at present, was offering the SAP at Rs. 1,050 a tonne. It had also fixed the SAP of paddy at Rs. 1,050 a quintal. While paddy was a three-month crop, sugarcane was a year-long crop and hence, the cost of production for both could not be compared, Mr. Giri said.

The farmers also called upon private sugarmills to bear the cost of transport of sugarcane from farm to the crushing point as the public sector and cooperative sugarmills did.

They also insisted that the sugarmills debit the payment to the farmers’ bank accounts within 15 days of supply. They sought immediate repair to the roads through which the sugar cane was being transported.

They later handed over a memorandum to Collector Rajendra Ratnoo.

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