For the third year in a row, the State Advisory Price (SAP) for sugarcane in Uttar Pradesh will remain unchanged and will be cleared by Cabinet for the current crushing season. The SAP was last hiked in the 2017-18 shredding season, shortly after the BJP government came to power in the state.
After the last rise, the SAP for three different varieties of sugarcane in the state was set at 315 rupees per quintal for the common variety, 325 rupees for the early variety; and 310 rupees for rejected varieties.
Government officials said most mills had already started making payments based on last year’s SAP. So changing SAP wouldn’t have made much of a difference.
Navneet Sehgal, Additional Chief Secretary of the Information Department, said: “Payment to farmers is not dependent on SAP and factories are already paying at the previous year’s rate. Therefore, it has been decided that SAP will remain the same for this year. “
He added that SAP in Uttar Pradesh is already much higher than in other states.
The Opposition criticized the government and said it would fight for farmers’ rights from the Assembly to the roads.
“This is yet another proof of the government’s anti-farmer mentality. They have shown that they only care about the sugar mills and not the farmers. All his promises are a myth, ”said SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary.
State Speaker of Congress Ajay Kumar Lallu said: “First, the government has not been able to guarantee that payments from the previous season will be cleared. Besides that, SAP did not increase. We will not leave the issue like that and we will raise it in the Assembly and we will also hold protests on the roads.
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