RTI reply - Eight sugar mills in Punjab owe over 93 crore to farmers
27 Jul, 2012As per information provided under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, eight sugar mills in Punjab owe over Rs. 93 crore to farmers for the sugarcane received by them in the past one year. The sugar mills are:
- Gurdaspur Cooperative Sugar Mill (Rs 16.16 crore),
- Batala Cooperative Sugar Mill (Rs 38 crore),
- Bhogpur Cooperative Sugar Mill (Rs 7.99 crore),
- Nakodar Cooperative Sugar Mill (Rs 11.28 crore),
- Fazilka Cooperative Sugar Mill (Rs 11.44 crore),
- Budewal Cooperative Sugar Mill (Rs 1.5 crore),
- Ajnala Cooperative Sugar Mill (Rs 13.70 crore) and
- Morinda Cooperative Sugar Mill (Rs 18.96 crore).
Hearing a writ petition, the Punjab and Haryana high court has directed the Secretary, cooperative department, Punjab, to pay the pending amount by August 9 even if it meant selling the sugar mills to make payment to farmers. A division bench headed by acting Chief Justice Jasbir Singh directed the payment be made in presence of cane commissioner to the farmers.