Taking note of complaints by farmers against sugar mills that are said to have cheated growers while weighing sugarcane, Minister for Textiles, Sugarcane Development and Agricultural Marketing Shivanand Patil has warned such wrong-doing sugar mills of cancelling their licence.
“Growers should get their sugarcane weighed at APMC for free and get a receipt. That load should again be weighed at the sugar mills. If there is any discrepancy in the weight of the produce, they should give a written complaint against the mills. We will examine it and cancel the licence of mills if the latter are found guilty. The problem is that farmers often don’t come forward to give complaints,” Mr. Patil told media representatives in Kalaburagi on Wednesday.
“APMCs are collecting cess of 60 paise for every ₹100 transaction. There are complaints that the cess collected is misused. There are allegations that local agents are involved in it. There are complaints that outsiders are transacting their business inside APMC. Traders who have obtained trade licence cannot give it to others to facilitate them to purchase farm produce from farmers inside APMC. We will form a vigilance squad and address these issues. Once the new Act of APMC comes into force, all these problems will be resolved,” he said.
