By Laxman Kafle
Kathmandu, Jan. 1: On the fourth day of the Kathmandu-centric agitation of the sugarcane farmers, Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Lekhraj Bhatta directed the owners of sugar mill to clear all dues of the farmers by January 21.
The minister issued the instruction on Wednesday after holding talks with the agitating farmers at the ministry, according to Dinesh Bhattarai, joint secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies.
Minister Bhatta directed the sugar mills, which had not cleared the dues of the sugarcane farmers, to clear 80 per cent of the total dues by January 10 and remaining 20 per cent by the third week of January.
The sugarcane farmers from various Terai districts have been staging a protest at Maitighar, Kathmandu since Sunday demanding that they should be provided the payment of sugarcane.
The farmers said that they were compelled to stage the protests as the sugar mills were reluctant to pay them their pending dues amounting to Rs 1.5 billion.
During the meeting, sugarcane farmers informally presented 11-point demand to the minister asking him to resolve their problems.
After listening to their demand, Minister Bhattarai assured the farmers to address their problems and recover their dues from the sugar mills.
After the government issued an arrest order against the owners of the sugar mills, which did not come in contact to clear the dues of the farmers, some owners of the sugar mills came in contact with the ministry, said Bhattarai.
As per the recommendation made by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, the Ministry of Home Affairs Tuesday directed Nepal Police to arrest owners of sugar mills, including Rakesh Agrawal for not clearing the dues of the sugarcane farmers for a long time.
Proprietor of Indira Sugar and Agro Limited and Annapurna Sugar and General Industries Agrawal who owed millions of rupees to the sugarcane farmers, had not come into contact. According to the Ministry source, Agrwal also came into contact with the ministry.
Mahalaxmi Sugar Private Limited came in contact with the ministry and committed to clearing dues by January 10, he said.
Likewise, Shree Ram Sugar Mills had also committed to pay the dues of farmers.
Bhattarai said that Minister Bhatta also directed the ministry officials to form a committee to address the recurring problems of sugarcane farmers.
“As per the direction, we will form a committee under the leadership of the official of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies with representatives of sugarcane farmers and sugar mills owners as its members. Representatives of the line ministry can be added in the committee,” he said.
The farmers are not only facing problem to recover their dues, but also the sugar mills are not paying the actual price of sugarcane as fixed by the government, he said.
The committee will make field visits to study the problems, he said.
“The trend is that the sugar mills purchase sugarcane from the farmers in credit, but sell sugar in cash. Sugar mills are 100 per cent fault. So, a provision of cash payment while purchasing sugarcane should be implemented to address the problem of sugarcane farmers permanently,” he said.