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Lucknow, Jan 28(UNI) Uttar Pradesh government said that it was committed to full and timely payment of all the sugarcane farmers.
The government also said that strict measures had been taken to curb the menace of underweighting.
Sugar industry is an important agro based industry of Uttar Pradesh and around 35 lakh sugarcane farmers of the state earn their livelihood from this cash crop.
In the previous crushing season (2017-18), the cane area was 23 lakh hectares and the total estimated sugarcane production was 1,820 lakh tones. In the season 2017 -18, the sugar mills of the state produced 1.21 crore MT of sugar by crushing 1,112 lakh MT of sugarcane.
The cane area of the state has increased by 22 per cent in comparison to the previous cane crushing season.
The government has directed the Sugarcane Department to ensure timely payment of cane price to farmers and this is being regularly monitored.
The state government is putting all efforts in ensuring payment of cane arrears of crushing season 2017-18. Against the total cane dues of Rs 35,463 crore of crushing season 2017-18 Rs 34,253 crore has been paid to the farmers and the balance cane dues are only Rs 1,210 crore that are to be paid to farmers.
The state government has taken strict action against the defaulting sugar mills and recovery certificates have been issued against them. The proceedings for attachment of sugar produced by these mills and their buildings, plant and machinery are in progress and after attaching them, the district administration will take necessary action for auction of the same and thereafter ensure payment of the cane dues from the sale proceeds.
Along with this, FIRs have also been lodged under Section 3/7 of Essential Commodities Act against the occupiers of other defaulting mills.
To have an effective check on under-weighting, a total of 8,791 inspections of cane purchasing centres were carried out by the officials in the current crushing season (2018-19).
During inspections, 57 irregularities of serious nature and 549 irregularities of general nature were detected. In 35 cases of serious nature and 440 of general nature, notices have been issued and 64 licences have been suspended and one licence has been cancelled while two cases have been filed in competent courts for prosecution.
A total of 13 FIRs have been lodged out of which three are for under-weighting and 10 for illegal purchase of sugarcane.
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