Punjab Government on Tuesday released Rs 65 crore to the cooperative sugar mills towards the payment of sugarcane dues to the sugarcane farmers for the year 2017-18.
Announcing this, the state Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Tuesday said that the amount would get credited into the accounts of sugarcane farmers by Wednesday.
He said that the cooperative sugar mills were to pay dues to the tune of Rs 151.33 crore to the sugarcane farmers, and out of this, Rs 65 crore have been paid while the balance Rs 86.33 crore would also be released soon.
Randhawa said that during the crushing season 2018-19, the cooperative sugar mills had crushed 99.15 lakh quintal of sugarcane till January 21.
“The average sugarcane recovery of the cooperative sugar mills today is 10.40 percent, while till now, it has been 9.61 percent which is likely to increase further. Bhogpur and Morinda sugar mill had shown marked improvement in performance in comparison with the previous years and have recorded 11.40 percent recovery rate till date. In comparison with the previous crushing season, the cooperative sugar mills have till now produced increased sugar worth approximately Rs 18 crore,” he said.
The Minister added that in the crushing season 2018-19, the cooperative sugar mills are in the process of making speedy as well as sooner payments to the sugarcane farmers and till January 21, the Punjab Government has released the payment of Rs 178.84 crore out of total due Rs 307.28 crore in respect of the sugarcane purchased as per the rate of Rs 310 per quintal fixed by the State Government.