 "Uttarakhand govt in dilemma on rationalising sugarcane price")
The government is also yet to announce dates for starting the crushing season in the state even as dues of the state's sugar mills stand at Rs 221 crore.
In a letter to Chief Minister Harish Rawat, Union food minister Ram Vilas Paswan said the state government should rationalise the SAP which stood at Rs 285 last year in the hill state.
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"We are in a Catch-22 situation. On the one hand, there is a pressure from sugar mills and the Centre to rationalise the price for sugarcane. And on the other, farmers and a section of political parties want higher price," said a top government official.
However, the chief minister has asked the government officials to hold talks with farmers and sugar mills for a middle path on the issue.
Interestingly, Rawat - who took over the command of the hill state in February this year - had given an ultimatum to the then chief minister Vijay Bahuguna to start crushing season and announce SAP before December 5.
Uttarakhand generally waits for neighbouring states, particularly Uttar Pradesh, for the announcement of SAP. During the past 8-10 years, Uttarakhand had been giving Rs 5-10 price higher than that of Uttar Pradesh.
Last year, Uttarakhand's SAP was Rs 285 per quintal which was Rs 5 higher than that of Uttar Pradesh's.
When contacted, secretary sugarcane Vinod Sharma said private sugar mills in the state owe Rs 174 crore to farmers. However, the government-controlled mills owe only Rs 47 crore.
"We have already disbursed Rs 77-crore loan that we received from the Centre through the soft loan window," said Sharma.
Despite the disbursement of the loan, the situation has failed to improve as far as the sugar sector is concerned in the state.