CHANDIGARH: Acceding to the demand of protesting farmers, the Punjab Cabinet today decided to increase the State Agreed Price (SAP) of sugarcane by Rs 10 per quintal, which will put the burden of Rs 20 crore on the state exchequer.
The Cabinet, which met here today, decided to increase the SAP from Rs 300 to Rs 310 for early variety, Rs 290 to Rs 300 for mid variety and Rs 285 to Rs 295 per quintal for late variety.
However, despite increase, the SAP in Punjab will be lower than that of Haryana. SAP in Haryana for crushing season 2017-18 stands at Rs 330 per quintal for early variety, Rs 320 per quintal for mid and Rs 310 per quintal for late variety.
Haryana's SAP is highest in the country.
Meanwhile, Punjab government's official spokesman said the hike, in line with the increase given by Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, was estimated to put an additional burden of Rs 20 crore on the state exchequer.
It has been decided to increase the SAP by Rs 10 per quintal for the crushing season 2017-18, an official spokesperson said, adding that Chief Minister Amarinder Singh was in favour of hike which, coupled with farm loan waiver, would go a long way in alleviating the woes of farmers.
The entire council of ministers endorsed the chief minister's views and decided to support the hike, the spokesman said.
The decision to increase cane price came when growers from Doaba, Malwa and Majha regions, who had been seeking hike in price, had threatened to gherao Punjab Assembly today.
Notably, opposition parties SAD and AAP had already announced to corner the state government on cane price issue in the Vidhan Sabha during the three-day session, which commended here today.
According to the spokesperson, a total quantity of 675 lakh quintal of sugarcane was expected to arrive at 16 sugar mills, including nine in cooperative and seven in private sector, during the current crushing season.
The Cabinet decision followed detailed parleys between the Cabinet sub-committee headed by Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and the representatives of various sugarcane grower unions and associations from across the state, who met here this morning at Kisan Bhawan.
The other members of the sub-committee were MLAs Pargat Singh and Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria. The meeting was also attended by the Special Secretary Agriculture Vikas Garg, Cane Commissioner Jaswant Singh, Assistant Cane Commissioner Vijay Mehta and Agriculture Development Officer Gurpal Singh.
Representatives of various cane growers associations also attended the meeting.