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Talks on Monday over sugarcane issue

Neena Vyas

Pranab invites party leaders for breakfast meeting; amendment if need be, says Manmohan

— PHOTO: PTI

Sugarcane growers crowd a flyover as they return after a protest in New Delhi on Thursday.

NEW DELHI: The Central government took a small step backwards and the Opposition a similar step forward on Thursday on the sugarcane price issue, suggesting that an end could be found to the current agitation.

Thousands of farmers, protesting against the Sugarcane Control (Amendment) Order 2009 Ordinance, choked the thoroughfares of Delhi, and the issue also forced the adjournment of Parliament on the opening day of the winter session.

The ordinance has changed the sugarcane pricing policy, fixing a uniform Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP), which will put the burden on the States if they choose to pay more than the FRP to farmers.

Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee has decided to go in for breakfast diplomacy — letters are being sent to party leaders inviting them for breakfast on Monday, when various issues could be discussed and suggestions made. The government hopes to find a way out of the imbroglio by Monday.

The decision was apparently taken after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called a meeting of some senior Cabinet Ministers, including Mr. Mukherjee, M. Veerappa Moily, P. Chidambaram, Sharad Pawar and Pawan Kumar Bansal.

All-India Congress Committee general secretary Rahul Gandhi also met Dr. Singh. Dr. Singh is reported to have assured Mr. Gandhi that the ordinance would be amended suitably, if need be.

Amid the developments, the BJP’s Sushma Swaraj rejected the government’s allegation that the Opposition was batting for the sugar mill owners. At a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee, Ms. Swaraj said it was not the intention of her party to benefit the sugar mill owners in any way by coming in the way of that part of the ordinance that intends to nullify the impact of a Supreme Court order under which the government would have to pay approximately Rs.14,000 crore to sugar mill owners as arrears from 1986.

The government, however, should not use this issue to hurt farmers by reducing the fair price for sugarcane. “We will support the government if the bill to replace the ordinance on sugarcane control is limited to counter the Supreme Court’s order on arrears,” Ms. Swaraj said.

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