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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | A farmer death, and the story of a Baghpat mill -Sourav Roy Barman

A farmer death, and the story of a Baghpat mill -Sourav Roy Barman

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published Published on Jun 3, 2018   modified Modified on Jun 3, 2018
-The Indian Express

While mills are required, by law, to pay the SAP amount within 14 days of cane purchase, the Malakpur factory has till date disbursed a mere Rs 32 crore. That amounts to less than 7 per cent of what is due to its 34,000-odd farmers.

Baghpat (U.P.):
On the road to the sugar mill in Malakpur, the number of flies first multiply, then quadruply. It’s late May and the mercury is soaring, but at Malakpur, the air is thick with the smell of molasses.

The sprawling plant, which in many ways epitomises farm distress from mounting cane payment dues, lies at the far end of acres of fields on the outskirts of Baraut town in western Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district. Workers, the ones remaining after the mill has shut for the current crushing season, crowd around its unswept corners.

Set up in 1998 and belonging to the Umesh Modi Group, the mill crushed 146.27 lakh quintals of sugarcane between October 24, 2017, and May 14, when it closed. This was worth Rs 459.01 crore at the UP government’s State Advised Price (SAP) of Rs 315 per quintal for ‘general’ varieties. While mills are required, by law, to pay the SAP amount within 14 days of cane purchase, the Malakpur factory has till date disbursed a mere Rs 32 crore. That amounts to less than 7 per cent of what is due to its 34,000-odd farmers.

Among those the Malakpur mill owed money to was Udayveer Singh. The 58-year-old died on May 26 morning, five days after he, along with other farmers, launched an agitation at the Baraut tehsil office over the pending cane dues. While the exact cause of his death is yet to be ascertained, it made headlines simply for the timing —two days before a crucial by-poll in the neighbouring Kairana parliamentary constituency. Jayant Chaudhary, the vice-president of the Rashtriya Lok Dal, whose candidate was fighting the election, rushed to pay his respects to Udayveer, whose body was displayed by the protesting farmers. Congress president Rahul Gandhi also referred to the farmer’s death in a tweet.

On May 27, a day after Udayveer died, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the area, addressing a rally barely 30 km from Baraut in the same Baghpat district, after inaugurating the Rs 11,000-crore Eastern Peripheral Expressway.

The Kairana bypoll result now in, Narendar Rana from Bhadal village in Baraut tehsil says that the ruling BJP’s defeat is proof that farmer anger cannot be wished away. “The BJP leaders here desperately tried to scuttle our movement ahead of the PM’s rally. But their plan didn’t work,” he says.

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The Indian Express, 3 June, 2018, http://indianexpress.com/article/india/a-farmer-death-and-the-story-of-a-baghpat-mill-sugarcane-crisis-kairana-bypoll-5201964/


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