The Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Harish Rawat met Union Food and Supply Minister Ram Vilas Paswan at his residence in New Delhi on Saturday. They discussed issues relating to sugar and rice mills during their meeting. The Chief Minister drew his attention to important issues and said that the Government of India has brought about a change in rice procurement policy.
The Central Government has got down the rice procurement of rice mill owners to 25 per cent from 75 per cent. This exposed the problems being faced by the farmers, mill owners and Government. Rawat appealed to Paswan to get a change in the policy. The State Government has a problem of repositing thus the levy should be lessened slowly over a span of one to two years.
Speaking in regard to the sugar mills and sugarcane farmers, Rawat said that the Government and cooperative sugar mills have made paid 80 per cent of the total payment. The farmers’ payment by private mill owners is still pending. The Government of India has been requested to grant a soft loan to these sugar mill owners.
Ramvilas Paswan assured positive result in this regard. The CM also informed him that the food department of Uttarakhand is working on computerisation of statistics and the work is scheduled to be completed by December.