Angered by the delay in payments, sugarcane farmers here are up in arms against the government and Ajnala Cooperative Sugar Mill for holding back their pending payments for 2007-2008, and instead slapping a penalty of Rs 24 lakh on them for not bringing the crop this year.

The angry farmers have warned that they would gherao the mill and burn an effigy of the government on March 19 if their payments were not cleared soon and the penalty not rolled back. They said till their demands were not met, they would not provide sugarcane to the mill.

Satnam Singh Pannu of Kisan Sangharsh Committee (KSC) said hundreds of sugarcane farmers have been affected by this move. He added that as per a bond with the mill authorities, farmers had fulfilled the sugarcane requirements for 2007-2008, but the mill had illegally held back their payments of Rs 96 lakh for one-and-a-half year.

He added that a few days ago, they had cleared Rs 72 lakh, which was only a part of the payment, and held back Rs 24 lakh. “Instead of paying us an interest on the past payments, the mill has imposed a penalty of Rs 16 per quintal on the farmers, which comes to Rs 24 lakh,” he rued.

Gursharan Singh Mann, a cane grower, said this move had bared the anti-farmer face of the Punjab government. He added that his pending payment amounts to more than Rs 10,000. “The government is robbing the farmers who are already under debt. This is because of corruption in various departments,” he said.

Baldev Singh Bhangali, another farmer who claims that his pending payments amount to more than Rs 12,000, said, “Farmers, who are already in the red, are being subjected to harassment instead of being encouraged to undertake cultivation of sugarcane.”