"Out of the total outstanding cane dues of Rs 25,836.46 crore for crushing season 2016-17, a payment of Rs 22,807.53 crore was made to cane growers till July 14. This is 89.84 per cent of the total dues," state Sugarcane Minister Suresh Rana said.
He was replying to a question raised by Congress Legislature Party leader Ajay Kumar Lallu in state assembly.
Also Read
He said the cane area of the state had increased by two lakh hectare due to the "faith reposed by farmers on Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath".
Replying to another question, Rana claimed that 21 sugar mills were sold during the previous (BSP) regime at "throwaway prices". The comments triggered a heated debate between BSP members and the minister.
"A CAG report had also shown the anomaly. We will take account of the corruption and no one will be spared," the minister said in response to a question raised by BSP MLA Uma Shankar Singh.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)