In order to encourage sugar production in Assam, the State Cabinet on Tuesday decided to make it mandatory for the sugar mills to buy the sugarcane produced by farmers in 30 kms radius of the mill.
Assam’s Industry Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said while addressing the mediapersons after a four-hour long Cabinet meeting and said that several other policy decisions had also been taken by the Government to boost the sugarcane cultivation. “We want to make Assam a hub of sugar production. The land in Assam is good for sugarcane cultivation. We have also decided to maintain the FRP (Fair and Remunerative Price) fixed by the Government of India,” he said adding that the State Government will not increase the FRP, which might negatively impact on production.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet on Tuesday also adopted State Information and Technology Policy, which vows to give Rs 1.20 lakh one time support against per seat for setting up BPO units having minimum 100 seats.
“We are going to make it mandatory for the sugar mills to buy the sugarcane produced from farmers in the 30 kms radius so that the farmers do not have to look for markets for their produce.” Patowary said
Similarly we are also not going to allow a second sugar mill to establish in the 30 kms radius of the first sugar mill in an area,” Patowary said.
The industry minister further informed that the Kothari Group and Uttam Sugar—two renowned names in the country for sugar production, have already approached the state government to set up sugar mills in Assam.
“This happened after we had a meeting with the All India Sugar Mills Association. We took the help of sugarcane experts in Assam Agricultural University and showed them the sugarcane cultivation area. With these initiative, we hope Assam will become a hub of sugar production in the country,” Patowary added.
Meanwhile, the cabinet today also adopted state Information and Technology Policy, which vows to give Rs. 1.20 lakh one time support against per seat for setting up BPO units having minimum 100 seats. “We have also decided to give Rs. 1.5 lakh one time support against per employee for those who are interested in software development,” said Patowary while adding that the government has also deicded to give Rs. 2.5 lakh one time support against per employee for Research & Development having minimum 50 seats.