The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday said the proposed sugar mill in Gorakhpur's Pipraich will be the first such mill in north India to produce ethanol from sugarcane.
Speaking during the Question Hour in the Legislative Council, Minister of State (independent charge) for Sugarcane Development and Sugar mills, Suresh Rana said, "In the entire north India, the sugar mill coming up at Pipraich will be first such mill to produce ethanol from sugarcane."
"Thanks to the efforts of the state government, Uttar Pradesh has become ethanol supplier state in the country. Almost 42.37 crore litres of ethanol has been produced by us. Looking at the work done by us, the Centre has given us the target of producing 81.36 crore litres of ethanol," he said.
Rana added that until a mechanism is devised for other products of sugarcane, cane prices will remain dependent on sugar, which will create difficulties for farmers.
The minister was replying to a question raised by Samajwadi Party member Pervez Ali.
On a supplementary question asked by Shashank Yadav (SP) pertaining to the poor condition of the state's jaggery industry, Rana said, "One of the major reasons behind it is that earlier the maximum distance between jaggery industrial units and sugar mills was 15 km, which has now been reduced to 7.5 km by the chief minister."
He also said that the state government has issued 86 new licences for setting up jaggery units.
Also Read
"Jaggery has also been kept out of the ambit of various taxes," Rana said.
Meanwhile, presiding officer Devendra Pratap Singh and SP member Sanjay Mishra entered into a verbal duel when the latter made "unparliamentary" comments while raising an issue related to salaries of teachers.
Singh then asked Mishra to leave the House, which was objected to by the Samajwadi Party members. The SP members also staged a walkout.
The matter was later resolved with Mishra tendering an apology in the House.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
