Pending Cane Dues: Stirs Brew in UP, Aggrieved Farmers in Meerut Threaten Mass Suicide

Despite the Centre’s relief package of Rs 7,000 crore announced in June – which it claimed was aimed at addressing the current crisis in the sugar industry – the problem of pending sugarcane dues has not been resolved.

Meerut: Satender Singh (38) owns five acres of land in Rohta, about 30 kilometres from Meerut, and sold sugarcane worth Rs 2,40,000 in the 2017-18 season. Till date, nearly three months after the season ended, he has been paid only Rs 80,000. Sixty-six percent of his dues remain unpaid. “The school fee for my daughter is due. My mother is unwell and we have to pay for her medicines. We have no money left. And there doesn’t appear to be any solution in sight. I see no other option but to end my life,” he said.

Farmers from across western Uttar Pradesh have been protesting in Meerut since August 16 demanding that the government ensure that pending dues of farmers are paid. Despite the Centre’s relief package of Rs 7,000 crore announced in June – which it claimed was aimed at addressing the current crisis in the sugar industry – the problem of pending sugarcane dues has not been resolved. In UP, as on August 20, sugar mills owed farmers Rs 10,622 crore. The comparative figure for this time last year was Rs 2,000 crore.

Farmers protest outside the Commissioner office. Credit: Munish Kumar

Now, farmers have threatened to commit mass suicide if their dues are not cleared. “We want dues of all farmers in western UP to be cleared by September 1. Otherwise, we will all commit suicide right here,” said Mehak Singh, president of the Ajgar Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan, one of the organisations spearheading the protest.

The protesting farmers have made Meerut’s Chaudhary Charan Singh Park – located close to the city’s main administrative offices – their home, where they spend the day and the night. The park has been host to several farmer protests over the years – the most famous being the 1988 protest when thousands of farmers led by Mahendra Singh Tikait laid siege for 25 days.

Chullah aur charpayi leke aaye hain (We have come with our string-cots and our stoves),” said Singh. The farmers sit most of the day around a couple of hookahs – integral to any large gathering in western UP and Haryana – that they have brought with themselves.

Farmers sit around a hookah at the Chaudhary Charan Singh Park in Meerut. Credit: Munish Kumar

Although, the number of farmers protesting remain a fraction of the number that brought Meerut to a standstill in 1988, the district administration, with each passing day, is getting nervous. “Initially, we thought that they will leave in a couple of days like often happens with these kinds of protests. But, now it has been ten days and the number is growing each day. The farmers are also getting more and more aggressive by the day . But, there is very little that we can do at the district level to clear the sugarcane dues,” said a high-ranking officer in Meerut district seeking anonymity.

Kuldeep Tyagi of the Bhartiya Kisan Andolan, a west UP-based farmer organisation that is part of the Meerut protests, stresses that their protest will not cease until their dues are cleared. “This time we will not rest till our payment is cleared. We have been given many assurances in the past, but, nothing has happened. This time we want to see action. We want our dues to be paid,” Tyagi told The Wire. “If the administration cannot ensure that, the steps that we take will be their responsibility. Some farmers are talking about ending their lives. And several farmers from various parts of the state are joining.”

Farmers march to district magistrate’s office with sugarcane in hand. Credit: Munish Kumar

The pace at which pending dues of sugarcane farmers have been cleared in UP has been snail-like. In June, when the Centre announced a Rs 7,000 crore relief package for the sugar industry, the pending dues of farmers totalled Rs 13,000 crore in UP. In July, the figure came down marginally to Rs 11,600 crore. Now, in late August, sugarcane farmers in UP are still owed Rs 10,600 crore.

Awkward questions are now being raised on what the Centre’s relief package, aimed at addressing the ‘current crisis in the sugar industry’, has achieved, if anything. “Bewakooof banaya hai ji aur kuch nahi. Package mein kisan ke liye to kuch tha hi nahi. Koi mill payment nahi kar rahi hai. Kahani wahan ki wahan hi atki hui hai. (They have only fooled us, nothing else. The package did not offer anything to farmers. No mill is making payments to farmers. The story is stuck where it was),” said an agitated Mehak Singh.

Farmers protest at the Chaudhary Charan Singh Park in Meerut. Credit: Munish Kumar

Sugarcane farmers across western UP have been protesting periodically over the last two months. Farmers in Muzaffarnagar held a sit-in protest at the gates of a sugar mill in mid-July. In Bijnor, farmers have protested against the early closure of the local sugar mill and forced liquor stores owned by the proprietors of the sugar mill to close.

The Bhartiya Kisan Union, headed by Mahendra Tikait’s sons Naresh Tikait and Rakesh Tikait, is planning a march from Haridwar to Delhi in September. Among their broader demands – a one-time farm loan waiver and implementation of the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission – the issue of pending dues of sugarcane farmers will be front and center. “Paschimi Uttar Pradesh se hain, ganne ka mudda kaise nahi uthayenge? Aur utha rahe hain mahino se. Har zile mein humare karyakarta pradarshan kar rahe hain (We are from western UP, how will we not raise the issue of sugarcane? And we have been doing it for several months. Our workers in every district have been protesting),” said Rakesh Tikait.

According to Sudhir Panwar, a former member of the State Planning Commission and state price fixation committee for sugarcane and a member of the Samajwadi party, the issue of pending dues is likely to worsen. “We are barely two months away from the new season, and it is safe to say that a massive amount will remain unpaid even as sugarcane starts coming into sugar mills for the new season. It is going to create a massive problem. There will also be a large opening stock of sugar and the production of sugarcane this year is also likely to be higher than last year. So, in the coming months, the crisis is only going to get much worse,” Panwar said.