Naraingarh (Ambala): The farmers held a meeting at Naraingarh in Ambala district on Wednesday. On the Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini’s announcement during of establishing a co-operative sugar mill in the area during his visit during ‘Jan Ashirwad Rally’ home town Naraingarh recently has failed to impress sugarcane growers, who while talking to media persons termed it merely a poll promise only to attract voters, allegedly said that the farmers usually supplying sugarcane to the private Naraingarh Sugar Mill every year are not getting long overdue payments for supply of sugarcane for months every year, and have yet to recover huge amount against supplies made last year payments against supply of sugarcane from the sugar mill. in-spite of intervention by the government.
During the Jan Ashirwad Rally in Naraingarh on Tuesday, the CM had expressed concerns over the inconvenience caused to farmers due to delayed payments by the Naraingarh Sugar Mills Limited every year and had promised to set up a cooperative mill if voted to power in coming Vidhan Sabha polls. Bhartiya Kisan Union spokesman Rajiv Sharma along with sugarcane farmers said Rajiv Sharma said, though Naraingarh Sugar Mills Limited is private, it is being run under the supervision of the Haryana Government since 2019, in-spite of sugarcane farmers holding repeated agitations every year, as well as during current year to get their payments for amount worth over Rs 22 crore of the previous season which ended in March this year. Farmers said, in-spite of promising a new sugar mill, the CM could have issued directions to Naraingarh Sugar Mills to clear the pending dues, which would have given the farmers the much-needed relief.
Sanyukt Ganna Kisan Samiti members said, the promises being made during the election time are just ‘chunavi jumlas’. The government had made several promises in the past just an eyewash that were not fulfilled. The farmers held a tractor march on August 5 and had also given a call for ‘Jal Satyagraha’ for August 12. We had a meeting with SDM Naraingarh as well as senior government officials and were assured that the payment would be cleared by August 18, after which we postponed the agitation till August 20, but the model code of conduct came into force, and the payment got stuck. Singara Singh said, the Samiti members held a meeting with the sugarcane farmers a couple of days ago to discuss the issue and it has been decided to resume the agitation after the new government takes charge. We have also decided to hold a ‘panchayat’ prior to Vidhan sabha polls to discuss the role of farmers in the upcoming elections and launch a campaign against the government and make people aware of the false promises made to the farmers, which were not fulfilled, he said.
Vinod Rana, president of Ganna Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, said, as the Chief Minister Saini belongs to Naraingarh, sugarcane farmers have high hopes from him, expecting that he would resolve the issue of delayed payments but he said nothing about clearing the dues. He said the farmers had submitted a memorandum to the CM in this context recently but the dues are still pending. “Setting up a co-operative sugar mill is not an easy task in Naraingarh as every sugar mill has its own assigned areas for supply of sugarcane and there are already two sugar mills in operation in Naraingarh and Yamunanagar. The BJP was in power for 10 years and if it really wanted to set up a sugar mill, it could have started the process early,”Rana said.
