PUNE: About 2,000 sugarcane farmers under the banner of the Swabhimani Shetkari Sangathana camped outside the office of Maharashtra 's sugar commissioner on Monday, seeking state intervention to ensure sugar mills pay their dues of Rs 5,320 crore accumulated till date immediately.Accepting the demand, sugar commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad began the process of issuing revenue recovery certificates (RRCs) against 180 sugar mills in the state to attach their properties.“Of the 191 sugar mills operating in the state this year, only 11 have made full payment of FRP ( fair and remunerative price ),” Gaikwad said. “As demanded by the Sangathana, we will issue RRCs to the remaining 180 sugar mills.”Once RRCs are issued, district collectors can attach the sugar produced and other assets of mills in order to make payment of farmers.However, there was no immediate decision taken by the commissioner on the second demand of the farmers to file first information reports (FIRs) against the management and owners of sugar mills.Raju Shetty, leader of SSS, said the highest dues of sugarcane farmers are with the mills belonging to leaders of the ruling BJP party, followed by the mills owned by NCP leaders and Congress leaders in that order.The sugarcane dues have mounted so steeply for the first time in Maharashtra. Mills claim that they only have money to pay 70% to 80% of the FRP as first instalment, while the Sangathana is firm on taking whole FRP amount at once.“Based on the realisation of sugar and the loan extended by the banks to the mills, they are short by only about Rs 100/tonne to Rs 150/tonne to make full payment of the fair and remunerative price. But the mills have been lying that they are short by about Rs 500/tonne as they want more sops from the government,” Shetty alleged while addressing the farmers.“The average monthly sugar sale of Maharashtra has been down by about 20% as traders and stockists had already purchased sugar at lower prices,” said an official of the sugar commissionerate.As compared to average 6 lakh tonnes of monthly sugar sales, which would increase by about 20% during festival seasons, the current monthly sugar sale is just about 4-5 lakh tonnes, said the official.In the last sugar season (October to September), when the sugar commissioner's office had issued RRCs to some 40 sugar mills, they had liquidated huge quantities of sugar to clear the dues of the farmers.However, they were left to repent it later when the government set the floor price of Rs 29/kg for ex-mill sugar sale, much higher than the price at which mills had sold off sugar.Also, sugar mills from Maharashtra haven't yet received the export subsidy of last year. Maharashtra's sugar mills had exported 2.58 lakh tonnes of sugar in the year.The central government had promised subsidy of Rs 55/tonne for the growers, which has been increased to Rs 138/tonne in the current year. However, last year's dues of Rs 1.42 crore are yet to be paid by the central government.