Farmers from the Ambala region met with Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini at his official residence in Chandigarh on Saturday, urging him to clear pending electricity dues amounting to RS 14 crore owed to Naraingarh sugar mill, located in Banondi village, Shahzadpur area of Ambala district. The farmers also appealed to the state government to take over the privately-run mill and have HAFED (Haryana State Cooperative Supply and Marketing Federation) procure the sugar produced there, reported The Times of India.
Led by Ganna Kisan Sangharsh Samiti’s Venod Rana, the delegation submitted two memorandums to the Chief Minister. Other representatives included farmers Rajpal Rana, Sukhminder, and Rajiv Sharma.
Sukhminder stated, “The sugar mill owes Rs 19 crore in sugarcane payments to farmers. Due to a pending government loan, only 50% of the payment for electricity generated by the mill is being released by the government, delaying payments to farmers.”
The farmers stressed that sugarcane payment is a major issue for those in the Naraingarh region. This season, the mill has sold electricity worth Rs 14 crore to the Haryana government’s electricity department. However, over the past three years, only half of the payment has been disbursed. The Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) releases funds to the mill after receiving a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Haryana Sugarcane Commissioner in Panchkula. The farmers urged the government to release the full pending electricity dues so that sugarcane payments could be made promptly.
In a second memorandum, the farmers suggested that following a Supreme Court order attaching the Naraingarh Sugar Mill in an ongoing legal matter, the government should have HAFED take over its operations. “Establishing a new sugar mill would cost Rs 600 crore, but if HAFED takes over the existing mill, the government can avoid this expense and recover its loan,” the farmers said.
They added that in the interest of the 7,000 farmers who supply over 50 lakh quintals of sugarcane annually to the mill, as well as the 700 employees working there, the government should take permanent control of the mill and operate it through HAFED as per official guidelines.
