Punjab hikes sugarcane price to Rs 380 per quintal
Darpan News Desk IANS, 03 Oct, 2022 01:05 PM
Chandigarh, Oct 3 (IANS) Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday announced an increase in the price of sugarcane to Rs 380 per quintal, a hike of Rs 20.
Announcing this on the floor of Assembly, he said the farmers will get the additional amount under State Agreed Price (SAP) of sugarcane as compared to the last year.
With this decision, the state government will spend additional Rs 200 crore annually to benefit the farmers.
Mann said the farmers of the state eagerly want to adopt sugarcane crop under crop diversification, but they are hesitant for it due to lack of adequate price and timely payment of the crop.
At present, sugarcane is cultivated on just 1.25 lakh hectares in Punjab, while the total crushing capacity of sugar mills was around 2.50 lakh hectares. This is why the state government has decided to enhance the price to supplement the income of farmers, he said.
Informing the House about the present status of the payments, the Chief Minister said cooperative sugar mills have already paid the entire dues of the farmers but two private sugar mills have not paid the dues yet.
He said the owners of the mills have fled from the country, adding the state government has already initiated the process to confiscate their assets to pay the pending dues of the farmers.
The compliance of the action taken by the operator is verified during the next audit and surveillance. In case of any violations or non-compliance to regulations detected during audit and surveillance, enforcement action including financial penalty is imposed by the DGCA.
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During a meeting with Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav and other officers, who called on him at his official residence here, Mann said that gangsters and drug peddlers were patronised by the previous governments.
The accused were identified as Neelam (35), Sunita (35), Neeta (34) and Savitri (34). DCP (Dwarka) M. Harsh Wardhan said the staff of Anti-Narcotics Cell received a secret information that some women sell drugs at Indira market near Anaj Mandi, Najafgarh.
According to the official, the main accused, Abhishek Chhabra was running the fake call-centre for the last one month. The victims of the scam are mainly the people residing in the foreign countries.
13 people have been arrested in the case so far after the first arrest was made on May 30, a day after the murder of Moosewala. Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar, who is a member of the Bishnoi gang, had claimed responsibility for Moosewala's murder.
