The State Government would take necessary legal action against the private sugar mills which fail to pay 50 per cent of dues of sugar cane farmers till July 14.This was announced by the chief minister Harish Rawat while addressing the representatives of the farmers of various villages of Haridwar district at Bijapur Guest House on Thursday.
CM Rawat assured them that State Government is aware of problems of the farmers. State will try to do better for its farmers than other states. Chief Minister asserted that State Government does not control the declining prices of Basmati rice and sugar. As Sugar mills are not paying dues to the sugar cane farmers due the declining prices of sugars. But sugar mills have been warned to pay the dues till next Monday so that farmers may be benefitted through the declared package of Government of India in this regard.
Chief Minister pointed that Uttarakhand is among the highest paying sugar cane price states in the country. We are paying Rs2/- per quintal as bonus to the sugar cane prices. Uttarakhand is the only State which has no balance to be paid for last year. Uttarakhand is a small State and it has very limited financial resources. We cannot pay all the dues with our limited resources.
Central government has to provide us financial aid in this regard. Previous UPA government had approved Rs 6500 Cr. for the payment of dues to the sugar cane farmers. But present government has declared around Rs 6000 Cr. with many conditions while this time there are huge dues to be paid to the farmers. But still State Government has not received a single penny of that so- called declared special package till date.
Chief Minister Harish Rawat stated farmers of the state have faced huge crops damages on account of calamity. We have released Rs25 Cr. from Chief Minister Relief Fund to compensation distribution. We had requested the Central Government to stop the bank loan recovery for six month and exempt the interests for this period.
Union Agricultural Minister assured that bank loan recovery would be stopped for six months and Finance Ministry would be recommended to exempt the interests for mentioned period. Chief Minister informed that he would meet Prime Minister in this regard and take up the issue positively.