UP orders sugar mills to operate at optimum capacity to avoid penal action

Directive aimed at ensuring vacating fields for rabi sowing

Even as the sugar season 2019-20 is gathering momentum in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s top producer of the kitchen staple, the Yogi Adityanath government has directed the mills to operate at optimum capacity.

The government has warned millers of strict action if they are found to be crushing less than 92 per cent of their ‘rated’ crushing capacity.

Till November 30, some 111 mills in UP had clocked total sugar output of nearly 1.1 million tonnes (MT), compared to less than one million tonnes in 2018-19 season.

In the current season, UP is estimated to account for 12 MT of sugar production, or