The government has taken a commendable initiative to pile pressure on sugarcane mill owners for clearing dues of farmers. The government has stepped up measures in this connection considering the sugarcane farmers' plight. Many farmers from different Terai districts have been staging protests in the capital to draw the government's attention to the issue. Over many years, there has been a tendency among the sugar mill owners not to pay the farmers in time. The farmers have faced financial crises due to this type of high handedness on the part of the sugar mills. The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS) tried its best to mediate between the agitating sugarcane farmers and the mill operators to resolve the problem. But the mill owners were reluctant to come into contact with the ministry to settle the issue. That has propelled the MoICS to forward the process of taking action against such irresponsible mill owners. As requested by the MoICS, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoFA) has instructed Nepal Police to issue arrest warrants against the sugar million owners, who have been unable to pay the farmers.

According to a news report published in this daily, proprietor of Indira Sugar and Agro Limited and Annapurna Sugar and General Industries Rakesh Agrawal is among the reckless mill owners. Agrawal alone owes millions of rupees to the sugarcane farmers since long. He has not shown his willingness to pay dues to farmers. Joint Secretary at the MoICS Dinesh Bhattarai said that the ministry took such a tough step against the mill owners due to the latter's negligence. The ministry had held several rounds of formal and informal meetings with the mill owners and the farmers after listening to the grievances of the latter. Despite such negotiations, the mill owners were not serious about resolving the problem. Anyway, the government is committed to dealing with this longstanding issue at the earliest possible. The problem is unlikely to be addressed without the government's necessary intervention. Actually, the government fixes prices of sugarcane, but it does not get involved between the sugarcane farmers and the mills while selling and buying the raw material. For the current fiscal year, the government has fixed a minimum purchase price of sugarcane at Rs. 536.56 per quintal by adding a subsidy of Rs. 65.28 per quintal.

The number of sugar mills operating across the country stands at 13. Some of them have closed. The government is in favour of resuming their operation as the country aims to be self-reliant in sugar. It is a recurring issue of payment. However, the dues claimed by the sugarcane farmers are less this year as compared to last year. They still have to get about Rs. 1.5 billion from sugar mills. Meanwhile, irregularities are often reported while providing subsidies to farmers. The MoICS has written to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Agricultural Development to make available subsidies to farmers in an efficient manner. Such issues must be settled for once and for all. The authorities concerned must ensure that all the problems faced by the farmers are resolved permanently.