In a judgement that has come as a shot in the arm for sugarcane farmers, the Madras High Court has said the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) fixed by the Centre for their produce was in reality not the fair market price at all, and that small and marginal farmers can survive only if the State governments paid them the much higher State Advised Price (SAP).
Acting Chief Justice T. Raja and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy made the observation while disposing of a PIL petition filed by agriculturist P. Ayyakannu complaining that the Thanjavur and Cuddalore farmers who supplied sugarcane to the company Aarooran Sugars Limited, between 2013 to 2017, had not been paid a total amount of ₹157.51 crore due to them since then.
Quoting the Tirukkural couplet ‘Uzhudhundu Vaazhvaare Vaazhvaar...’ which eugolises farmers, the judges said, “This is a converse case of small and marginal farmers, who supplied their produce as per the mandate of the State under the Sugarcane (Control) Order of 1966, being made to be pray with folded hands, not demanding any favour, but for the money due to them.”
