Sirpur Paper Mills owes arrears to AP growers

Subabul growers on warpath as officials remain silent

Vijayawada: Subabul growers from Krishna district are up in arms seeking payment of arrears from the Telangana-based Sirpur Paper Mills. The company has to pay around Rs 18.73 crore to the growers.

The subabul growers’ efforts to get their arrears since 2000 went in vain despite their strong protests. Several rounds of talks with the representatives of the paper mills too failed.

Ironically, officials remain spectators even as the cheques issued to the growers bounced. Though the company was to clear the dues by October 2014, it did not respond till date forcing the growers to take to the streets.

The previous Collectors of Krishna district, S M A Rizvi and M Raghunandana Rao, held tripartite talks with representatives of the company, farmers and officials of agriculture and marketing departments.

The representatives of the paper mill have given in writing to the Krishna district administration in February 2012 promising to clear the arrears within a year, which too remained only on paper and did not materialise.

The subabul crop grown originally in 1.4 lakh acres in the western mandals of Krishna district under the Jaggaiahpet and Nandigama Assembly constituencies had come down to just 60,000 acres thanks to the apathy of the officials.

The paper mills, including the Sirpur Paper Mills Limited from Kagaznagar, ITC from Bhadrachalam and AP Paper Mills from Rajahmundry, buy the subabul from the growers from Krishna, Prakasam, Kurnool and parts of Khammam districts.

These companies kept the price at just Rs 860 a tonne till 2000 when it was first increased to Rs 970 following series of fights.

That was again increased to Rs 1,300 a tonne in October 2003 and Rs 1,450 in July 2005, Rs 1,600 in April 2007, Rs 1,750 in September 2009, Rs 2,075 in April 2011, Rs 3,000 in February 2012 and finally Rs 4,400 in 2013.

However, the farmers allege that the paper mills always paid less than the minimum support price and never paid the promised amount of Rs 4,400 as agreed in 2013.

The then legislators of Jaggaiahpet and Nandigama, Sriram Rajagopal and Tangirala Prabhakar, took the initiative to hold meetings with the representatives of the paper companies, the growers and the officials, which had helped the growers get the MSP increased over the years.

Even the representatives of the growers like Mokkapati Narasimha Rao, Bommisetti Bhaskara Rao, former chairmen of the Nandigama and Kanchikacharla Agriculture Market Committes (AMCs) played crucial role in getting the MSP increased.

Though they have been fighting for the government to ensure that the AMCs purchase the product directly from the farmers and sell it to the paper mills to avoid middlemen, it did not work.

The farmers and their representatives have also been asking the government to monitor the sale of the subabul at the market yards like chillies, tobacco, turmeric and cotton in vain.

As the officials remain mute spectators to the exploitation by the paper mills and turn a deaf ear to the Rs 18.73 crore arrears to be paid by the Sirpur Paper Mills, the growers along with the family members are holding protest on the streets of Nandigama.

Meanwhile, CPI-M State secretary and former MP, P Madhu, wrote a letter to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to intervene and help the farmers.

He alleged that the officials remained silent when the Sirpur Paper Mills did not pay the money to the farmers over the years.

Stating that the subabul growers have invested heavily right from plantation to harvest after three years a decade ago and they were not paid for the crop yet,

the CPI-M leader regretted that the families were pushed into debt trap and were facing problems from the money lenders for repayment.

“The farmers are caught in financial crisis now and they are forced to sell their properties, while some have no option but to end life,”

he said and feared that the subabul growers too would join the tobacco and cotton farmers who are committing suicides being caught in debt trap.

He wanted the government to ensure that the growers get their dues paid through the market committees. He also sought to advise the Chief Minister to get the arrears from the Sirpur Paper Mills and save the farmers.

By:D Gopi