The Kapurthala district administration has attached all movable and immovable properties of a private mill to ensure payment of sugarcane dues of farmers which are pending since 2019-20. As per a report by tehsildar, Phagwara, dated September 12, the Golden Sandhar Sugar Mill owes Rs 50.33 crore to farmers.

The attached properties include machinery, power generation plant, structures, buildings, yards, residential compounds, vehicles and any other movable and immovable assets, Kapurthala Deputy Commissioner Kapurthala Vishesh Sarangal said. Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Doaba) has deferred its plan to launch an agitation from Saturday after the Punjab government invited its representatives for a meeting to discuss issues of cane farmers.

Punjab Agriculture minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal will hold the meeting on September 20 for discussing and resolving the issues of cane farmers, farm union president Manjit Singh Rai said.

Farmers have been demanding payment of Rs 72 crore dues of Doaba farmers and immediate repair of Phagwara Sugar Mill for readying it to crush 60 lakh quintals of cane of the region in the coming crushing season, BKU (Doaba) general secretary Satnam Singh Sahni said.

Dhuri sugar mill auction on Sept 20

Ludhiana: The SDM Dhuri Friday said the Dhuri Sugar Mill will now be auctioned on September 20. The mill owes Rs 7.82 crore to about 500 sugarcane farmers for financial years 2020-21 and 2021-22. Earlier, the auction scheduled for September 14 had to be put on hold after excise department officials reached the mill with details of over Rs 40 crore pending in taxes.

Ruling party needs to be more responsible than Opposition: Speaker