Labourers, workers suffer as sugar mills remain shut across Haryana

Thousands of local and migrant labourers associated with the harvesting and crushing of sugarcane in the state are bearing the brunt of the ongoing farmers’ agitation for a hike in State Advised Price (SAP).

The impasse, which entered the fifth day on Tuesday, has left labourers and contractual workers of the sugar mills associated with the transportation of sugarcane jobless. Many are hoping that the impasse ends soon and crushing operations resume soon.

Though the exact figures of the labourers deputed in the harvesting of sugarcane is not known but farmer leader Satpal Kaushik said one can roughly estimate the labourer strength to be around 30,000.

“As per the figures of the Haryana Sugarfed, the per day crushing capacity of cooperative sugar mills is 2.54 lakh quintals besides the crushing capacity of private mills is around 1.70 lakh quintals. Since the harvesting is done manually, one can estimate that around 30,000 labourers should be required to send a total of 4.24 lakh quintals sugarcane to sugar mills every day,” farmer leader Satpal Kaushik said.

“Most of the labourers are returning to Bihar. Additionally, over 10,000 labourers are engaged in unloading and loading of sugarcane at the purchase centres,” Kaushik said.

“The strike is costing me ₹700 daily. We harvest an average of 100 quintals of sugarcane every day at a rate of ₹51 per quintal,” said Biswas Kumar, a migrant labourer, who had come with seven labourers from West Bengal in Bhadson in Karnal district.

Another migrant labourer Kanahiya Kumar from the Betiah district of Bihar said the strike has left them jobless, and now he doesn’t even have money to buy ration for 12 people who had come with him for harvesting sugarcane. “We have been sitting idle since January 20,” he said.

On the other hand, sugarcane farmers said that they were also facing difficulties as they fear that the labourers will return if the crushing doesn’t resume in the sugar mills within the next few days. “Farmers have withheld the payments of the labourers as they fear the labourers will flee if their dues are cleared. Some farmers are providing free ration to their labourers”, said Ishwar Singh, a farmer from Indri in Karnal.

Besides workers and labourers, hundreds of drivers of the tractor-trailers, who are engaged in the transportation of sugarcane from the purchase centres to the sugar mills’ are also suffering. “The strike is costing me ₹2,000 per day. There are hundreds of tractor-trailer drivers like me who are waiting for this strike to end,” said Ishwar Singh, a tractor driver from Yamunanagar’s Radaur.

As per the farmer leaders, the agitation may continue for the next couple of days as they have already announced a series of protests till January 29, and the next meeting has been called on January 30.

The government has also made it clear that the decision to increase the SAP will only be taken as per the recommendations of a committee constituted to consider the demand.

As per the figures of the state agriculture department around 90,000 hectares are under sugarcane crop in the state and Haryana Sugarfed claims that the government-operated 11 sugar mills render service to about 40,000 sugarcane growers’ families out of a total of 6 lakh families associated with agriculture in the state.

Meeting to decide SAP held

Chandigarh: To suggest the price of sugarcane for the 2022-23 crushing season, a meeting under the chairmanship of agriculture and farmers’ welfare minister, JP Dalal was held here on Tuesday.

A detailed discussion on various issues related to the cost of sugarcane and the price of sugar in the market was held during the meeting. The members of the committee put forth their respective suggestions.

After the meeting, JP Dalal said that the committee has made an opinion considering all the suggestions and will submit its report to chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar shortly, an official spokesperson said.