Mills have been maintaining that they cannot pay farmers Rs 461 per quintal fixed by the government. The government had fixed minimum support price of sugarcane at Rs 461 per quintal after farmers and sugar mills could not forge consensus on the minimum support price last year.Opposing the minimum support price, mill operators had filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court a month ago. The apex court has fixed January 5, 2016 as the date for hearing of the case.
Sugarcane farmers say the apex court's decision leaves farmers with no option but to launch protest. Organizing a press meet in Hariwan on Wednesday, Kapil Muni Mainali, president of Sugarcane Producer's Association, said sugar mills were refusing to release payment for farmers even though they have already sold sugar produced from sugarcane they harvested last year. "Mills are earning handsome interest income from our money deposited in banks. Farmers, on the other hand, have not been able to pay interest to banks," said Mainali.
The mills have made the government and farmer defendants in the case.
Many farmers have not even received advance payment from the mills. As a result, they have not been able to pay installments of bank loans that they took for commercial sugarcane farmers. Many do not have money to meet their family expenses.
The Supreme Court has asked the defendants to furnish answer to the court on January 5. Local farmers say they will have to wait long to get payment as the case was still subjudice.
Many sugar mills have not made payment to farmers for the past two years. "Now we won't receive any payment at least until January 5," Bed Bahadur Budhathoki, a local farmer, said.
Sugar mills have been arguing that they cannot pay Rs 476 per quintal to farmers saying that price of sugar has come down. Farmers have been saying that cost of production has increased due increasing price of inputs.
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