Patna: After unveiling a policy to boost ethanol production, the Bihar government plans to design a policy to boost production of jaggery and unified sugar. State sugarcane industries minister Pramod Kumar informed this in the legislative council on Tuesday.
Replying to a short-notice question asked in the legislature by RJD MLS Ram Chandra Purbey, he said that the government will also relieve the area near sugar mills from the category of the reserved area.
Taking the cause of farmers associated with Riga sugar mill, Purbey said that farmers were compelled to sell cane at low price. They should be given the option to produce jaggery and unified sugar. “Because of the reserved area, they could not sell sugar cane for any other use apart from sugar production. They should be given the option to use sugar cane for production of jaggery and unrefined sugar. Nearly 40,000 sugarcane farmers are suffering because of the closure of the mill,” he said.
The minister stated that the sugarcane from the region around Riga mill is sent to other sugar mills for crushing at its own cost.
