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Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president and former Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar asked the state government and the Centre to give relief to the sugar sector in Maharashtra.
He said the Centre should give a grant of Rs 700 per tonne to the sector to bridge the gap between the cost of production and ex-mill price, so that sugar factories can pay fair and remunerative price (FRP) to cane growers. FRP ranges between Rs 1,900 and Rs 2,200 a tonne in different cane-growing areas in the state.
Pawar also asked the Centre to give an export subsidy of Rs 3,300 per tonne.
He called upon the state government to issue a notification waving off sugarcane purchase tax of Rs 875 crore. He recalled how the previous Congress-led government at the Centre and the state had intervened to bail out the crisis-ridden sugar sector in the past.
State cooperation minister Chandrakant Patil had said the godowns of sugar factories that failed to pay FRP to cane growers would be sealed. To this, Pawar said it should be done quickly as the auction of sugar in those godowns would take care of issues regarding loan repayment and interest payment by factories. Besides, it would help factories make FRP payment, he added. Pawar cautioned that the auction of sugar stock at one go might lead to a huge crash in sugar prices, which will adversely affect the sugar sector in Maharashtra.
On Ghar-Wapsi
On the controversial ghar-wapsi campaign by the Sangh Parivar, Pawar warned it would divide the society and create unrest. It would also impact the social fabric of the country, he added. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is advocating development agenda, should rein in such forces. If ghar-wapsi like programmes continue, it will hamper Modi's growth agenda,” he noted.
On the alleged cross-border violations by Pakistan, Pawar, who had held the defence ministry in the past, insisted that the Centre be prepared to tackle the issue with Pakistan effectively. “It is quite ironical that people from our border had to be migrated due to recent firing,” he added.
