CURATED BY – GAURAV SINGHAL | CITYCHIEFNEWS

Deoband (Saharanpur), addressing the farmers' meeting at BKU Verma office Ravidas Marg, National President of Bharatiya Kisan Union Verma and West Pradesh Mukti Morcha, Bhagat Singh Verma said that the BJP government of the state is constantly neglecting sugarcane farmers. Sugarcane farmers are being paid only ₹ 360 per quintal by sugar mills, which is much less than their cost price of ₹ 550 per quintal. Whereas in the neighboring small state Haryana, the price of sugarcane is ₹ 50 per quintal more than Uttar Pradesh. This time in Haryana, the price of sugarcane is ₹ 400 per quintal, which is 30 rupees more. Whereas there is a lot of discount on agricultural equipment, seeds, pesticides, tractors, fertilizers etc. At one time, the price of sugarcane in Uttar Pradesh was higher than Haryana. Whereas the recovery of sugarcane in Uttar Pradesh is higher. Bhagat Singh Verma said that the sugarcane farmers of Uttar Pradesh can easily be given a profitable price of ₹ 700 per quintal. In the year 1967, when Chaudhary Charan Singh became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the first time, the price of sugarcane was 12 rupees 10 paise per quintal. At that time, the job of a primary school teacher was ₹ 70 per month and the price of one tola of gold was 125 rupees. Today, the job of a teacher has increased 1000 times to more than ₹ 70000 per month and gold has increased more than 600 times. According to this, the price of sugarcane is ₹ 12000 per quintal. As sugarcane farmers are constantly getting sugarcane prices less than the cost price, the debt of banks, cooperative societies and other institutions on the sugarcane farmers of the state is continuously increasing. Whereas the state government receives revenue of Rs 50 thousand crore from sugarcane in the form of excise duty every year and apart from this, the state government receives revenue of Rs one lakh crore from GST and other taxes every year from thousands of products made from sugar, molasses, alcohol. Despite this, the Yogi government of BJP is not able to get the sugarcane price equal to the price of bagasse, bagasse to the sugarcane farmers of the state. Due to which the sugarcane farmers of the state are continuously getting disillusioned with sugarcane. Sugarcane farmers are compelled to turn to fruits, vegetables, poplar, wheat, paddy apart from sugarcane. Due to which the state government will also suffer huge losses in the coming time and sugar mills will have to face financial crisis. The sugarcane farmers of the state were hopeful that this time the sugarcane farmers of Uttar Pradesh will get sugarcane price equal to Haryana. Which Chief Minister Yogi has dashed the hopes. The brunt of which will have to be borne by the Yogi government of BJP in the 2027 assembly elections of the assembly. While chairing the meeting, State Vice President of Bharatiya Kisan Union Verma, Rao Shahid Pradhan said that the state government is bent on ruining the sugarcane farmers. Already, sugarcane farmers are facing a huge crisis of labourers. While conducting the meeting, State General Secretary Asim Malik said that the Central Government and the State Government should together provide labourers to the farmers by linking the MNREGA scheme directly with farming and the sugarcane farmers should be immediately provided the beneficial price of ₹ 700 per quintal. National Treasurer Rajendra Chaudhary, National Advisor Rajat Sharma, National Vice President Mohammad Feroz Khan, National General Secretary Ramkumar Netaji, State Vice President Pandit Neeraj Kapil, State Vice President Mohammad Zaheer Turki, State Organization Minister Dharamveer Chaudhary, State Secretary Rishipal Gurjar Pradhan, Divisional Media Incharge Dushyant Singh, Divisional Vice President Sardar Gurwinder Singh Bunty, Divisional Vice President Kripal Singh, District Vice President Wasim Zaheerpur, District Minister Mehboob Hasan, District Organization Minister Surendra Singh Advocate etc. participated in the meeting.