Sugarcane pricing crisis dispirits Indian government
The issue of sugarcane pricing is becoming more volatile than even the greatest detractor of the current Indian government could envisage. There have been waves of protest marches in conjunction with harshest criticisms of almost all opposition parties and the situation threatens to get worse provided that apposite preventive measures are not taken before long.
It is to be noted, in the meantime, thousands of sugarcane farmers from north India staged a demonstration in the national capital in order to protest the new sugarcane pricing policy of the government and demanded an increase in procurement prices. Even though there were several heads behind the rally, Bharatiya Kisan Union of Mahendra Singh Tikait deserves special mention.
Let’s focus on their main grievances then. The Centre brought in an ordinance recently defining a price of Rs 129.85 per quintal for sugarcane during the 2009-10 devastating season under the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) system, which the protesters and opposition parties say is less. In case a State Government fixes the State advisory price (SAP) higher than the FRP, it will have to pay the difference. The situation has aggravated further owing to the demand of CPIM of the urgent withdrawal of the ordinance promulgated by the government on sugarcane pricing. Even the reverberations of the same have been found in the winter session of Lok Sabha already. What has been the reaction of the Union Government of India? It is also equally tensed and unsteady and in the wake of sudden developments Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday held an emergency meeting on the issue with senior Cabinet colleagues.
The prime members of the Union Cabinet including Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Law Minister M Veerappa Moily, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Home Minister P Chidambaram attended the meeting at Parliament House but there has been no official confirmation yet.
It is sure that the sudden situation has dispirited the buoyant Union Government of once.
