The sugarcane mafia has come under the scanner of Yogi government for protecting small and marginal farmers from exploitation. The Chief Minister directed Cane department officials to weed out such mafia in the state.
Cne mafia refers to middlemen who register as farmers with sugarcane societies and during crushing season, they procure crop from farmers at cheaper rates by making on the spot payment to sell it at State Advisory Price (SAP) fixed by the government. Cane Commissioner Sanjay Bhoosreddy said that undesirable elements will be identified and eliminated during the ongoing cane survey in the run up to the 2018-19 crushing season expected to commence early November.
The survey collates individual farmers’ data with regards to cane acreage in previous and current year. This is further verified by officials through spot visits. Besides, random checks are also conducted by senior officials posted at state headquarters. The Cane Commissioner said that strict action would be taken if land and cane survey records were found to be fudged. Officials colluding in such malpractices would also be booked.
The drive against cane mafia began in May this year and the Cane department filed FIRs against 28 persons and 15 other cases were also lodged over under-weighing of cane at cane purchase centers.
Bhoosreddy said that an extensive drive had been launched at the start of last year’s crushing season to weed out unscrupulous elements operating in cane purchase and supply chain in UP.
Special vigilance teams carried out 19,800 on- the-spot inspections of different purchase centres. They detected around 1500 irregularities and later 43 FIRs were lodged. licenses of 171 weighing clerks were suspended for complicity in such cases. The department also confiscated 600 tonnes of illegally purchased sugarcane stock.