Uttar Pradesh government has undertaken an extensive drive to weed out ‘sugarcane mafia’ even as the crushing season is on in full swing in the state.
Under the drive, a vigilance team comprising senior officials is on prowl in the western UP region comprising Pilibhit, Bareilly, Sambhal, Etah and Badaun districts for on the spot action.
Cane mafia refers to elements or local syndicates, who bring about discrepancies in the sugarcane procurement and weighing processes at the cost of farmers. The sugarcane crop supports about 4 million farmers’ families in UP, which is the largest cane grower in India.
The team has been intensively keeping tab on the entire process starting from the dispatch of sugarcane from procurement centres, weighing and subsequent crushing.
So far, about 30 police cases had been registered against sugar mills situated in Meerut, Moradabad, Bareilly and Lucknow regions, official sources said here.
Besides, the cane commissioner had directed officials to adhere to the weekly review meeting over sugarcane price to be paid to farmers..
Meanwhile, the 121 operation sugar mills in UP had produced nearly 2.34 million tonnes (MT) of sugar after crushing 26.62 MT of cane. The sugar recovery stands at 8.79 per cent.
The state mills have already run arrears of Rs 2,410 crore against the total payable amount of Rs 4,882 crore, meaning the farmers had already been paid nearly Rs 2,472 crore.
The private mills have accounted for the bulk of payments at Rs 2,180 crore followed by the cooperative units.
In fact, the total dues of the mills are to the tune of about Rs 7,323 crore. However, they get 14 days to pay the outstanding cane dues, which had reduced payable liability to Rs 4,882 crore so far.
