Announcing a major sop to farmers as well as sugar mills in the run-up to the election year, the Yogi Adityanath government has offered soft loans to the tune of Rs 4,000 crore plus a subsidy of Rs 4.50 per quintal to the mills to clear the dues of farmers by November 30 next. While announcing that the new crushing season of sugarcane would commence from October last week, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that soft loans to the mills would be provided through banks and other financial institutions at an interest of 5 per cent. These loans, however, will be available only to those mills which have cleared 30 per cent of the cane dues, and will be paid directly to farmers. “But, all the dues of farmers should be paid by November 30 next at any cost,” Yogi said. The decision was taken at the state Cabinet meeting held here on Tuesday under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister. The CM said if a mill defaulted in repayment of soft loans, it would have to pay 12 per cent interest as penalty. In another decision, the government also decided to provide Rs 4.50 per quintal subsidy to the mills which will be given directly to the farmers. The government has sanctioned Rs 500 crore for this purpose. Adityanath said that till date, the total cane dues in the state stand at Rs 9,770 crore in the crushing season of 2017-18. The private mills have yet to pay Rs 8,500 crore while the cooperative and federation mills Rs 887 crore. This season, 1111.90 tonnes of cane was crushed at the cost of Rs 35,458 crore, of which Rs 25,888 crore have been paid to the cane growers. “In UP, there are 119 sugar mills, of which 24 are in government sector while the rest in private sector. Among the private mills, 63 have paid 73 to 80 per cent of their dues to the farmers, 42 mills have paid above 50 per cent of the dues and nine mills have paid less than 50 per cent of their dues,” the Chief Minister said, adding that low rate of sugar in the market was the main reason for the mills suffering losses. The CM said that the government was concerned about the financial health of the sugar mills, which is directly related to the four million cane farmers o the state, hence the Centre had approved the new ethanol policy where the mills would be given Rs 53 per litre for ethanol blended from molasses and Rs 59 per liter for blending from sugar juice. “This new policy will improve the financial health of mills because we want mills to be financially robust because cane growing area in the state has increased in the next crushing season,” he said. The government also approved construction of bridge over the Ganga river at Karteri Ghat near Sirathu at the cost of `249 crore which will be completed within three years while the Cabinet approved a proposal to strengthen 42.60-metre Sidhauli-Naimisaranya road at the cost of Rs 72.45 crore. Under the Prasad Scheme, the façade lighting in Varanasi ghats has been handed over to Central PWD from UPRNN while the Cabinet approved Swadesh Darshan scheme under which the light & sound programme will be held at Gorakhnath temple. The project will cost Rs 4.20 crore. In another decision, the Cabinet approved a budget of Rs 181.82 crore for the beautification of Shaheed Asfaqullah Khan Park in Gorakhpur.