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Indian Potash Limited (IPL) today assured the Uttar Pradesh government that its five sugar mills in the state would start crushing operations by month end.
The company has also cleared its sugarcane arrears for the last crushing season.
The state had already asked all the sugar mills to start crushing starting from November 20, so that all units are running by the end of November.
Participating in a meeting convened by state cane commissioner Subhash Chandra Sharma here, IPL representatives held out the assurance about crushing.
Sharma reiterated the government stand that all mills have to start crushing by the prescribed dates lest action was taken against defaulters.
He expressed concern that mills had so far failed to provide calendar of their crushing operations to the state government.
The cane commissioner underlined that mills’ management should bear in mind that the farmers vacate their field for wheat sowing and the delay in crushing ought not endanger food grain availability.
UP cane acreage is about 2.4 million hectares and supports 4.5 million farmers.
In earlier meetings, the farmers representatives had demanded cane price of almost Rs 350/quintal for 2013-14 crushing season, while the private mills maintained their paying capacity under the prevailing circumstances was not beyond Rs 225/quintal.
UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had also directed private mills to start from November 20 and issued terse warning to defaulters.
While, sugar mills in Saharanpur, Meerut and Moradabad divisions have to start between November 20 and 25 under “any circumstances”, the rest of the units would start by November 30.
The private millers want UP to first declare the state cane price, which is unlikely anytime soon. Last year, the state cane price of Rs 280/quintal was announced on December 7.
