Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, on Monday, distributed share certificates to 50.10 lakh sugar cane farmers registered with the cane cooperative societies which supply sugarcane to sugar mills.
The move will go a long way in making the functioning of cane cooperative societies in the state completely transparent and accountable,
Addressing farmers at Lok Bhawan here on Monday, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said, “Farmers have been our top-most priority and all our efforts have been made keeping their welfare at the top. Today's event has revived the cooperative movement of the country and our farmers are now on their way to not only being participants but also the owners of the system they are associated with.”
“I would like to express my deepest gratitude towards all our ‘annadatas’ for their contribution towards making the state the number one economy despite the natural challenges thrown by the varying seasons,” the chief minister said. Emphasising the importance of technology in ensuring transparency and making government functioning hassle-free, the chief minister asserted, “We increased the use of technology to benefit our farmers, ensure their hard work bears appropriate results and end the dominance of the sugarcane mafia and other corrupt elements existing in the system.”
Yogi said that it was technology due to which the sugar mills continued to function even during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Unlike states like Maharashtra and Karnataka where all the mills were shut down, we took risks, prepared a system, set up Covid help desks to safeguard lives and livelihoods and look after our farmers even during challenging times,” he said.
Criticising the previous state governments, the chief minister said, “Previous governments used to take one-sided decisions aimed at their own benefits, shoot farmers, shut down sugar mills and give protection to sugarcane mafias. On the contrary, we ensured timely payment to farmers, re-started closed sugar mills, got distilleries installed, and eliminated all corrupt practices by utilisation technology.”
The chief minister said that his government had so far paid a record Rs 1.77 lakh crore directly to sugarcane farmers, which was about three times more than the annual budget of many states and far more than what was paid to the farmers between 2007 and 2017.
“We have already paid about 82 per cent of the sugarcane price for this year as well,” Yogi said, adding that the cane cooperative societies that were made dysfunctional and inefficient by the previous governments had been revived.
Stating that no sugar mills would remain in loss in the coming years and that the government was working on a permanent solution for sugarcane farmers of Uttar Pradesh, the chief minister said that sugarcane would also be used to produce ethanol abundantly to tackle the ups and downs of the sugar market.
“Most of the sugar mills have made their payment in a time-bound manner. We are also working to ensure all mills do the same. We have also implemented a system through which if a person has invested his money in some other industry and his sugar mill has become inefficient in terms of making payments, then the money made through the industry will also be diverted to make payments,” the chief minister said.
On the occasion, the chief minister said that when the farmers become the shareholders of the cane cooperative societies, they also become eligible to benefit from the profits of the committee.
He said that the state government was going ahead with the plan of revival of sugar mills, ensuring gradual expansion of the old mills and their modernisation and up gradation. “We are working on a plan to set up an integrated complex to ensure production of bio fuel and to make sure farmers get benefits even through raw materials,” he added.
UP's Sugarcane Development Minister Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary, Minister of State for Sugarcane Development Sanjay Singh Gangwar and senior officers were present on the occasion. At the event, the farmers also expressed their gratitude to the chief minister for ensuring their well-being and for introducing various reforms that had made their living conditions prosperous.