Punjab releases Rs 100 crore arrears of sugarcane farmers
Darpan News Desk IANS, 12 Aug, 2022 04:00 PM
Chandigarh, Aug 12 (IANS) Fulfilling a promise, the Punjab government on Friday said it has released Rs 100 crore for pending payments of sugarcane growers.
The amount was deposited in the accounts of the farmers.
An official statement quoting Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said Rs 295.60 crore was the pending arrears of sugarcane farmers which had to be paid by the government and cooperative sugar mills in the state.
He said out of this Rs 100 crore was paid by the government on July 29. Mann said the remaining arrears were Rs 195.60 crores and he had promised the farmers that out of this, Rs 100 crore will be paid by August 15 and the remaining Rs 95.60 crore will be cleared by September 7.
Mann said the government released Rs 100 crore as payment to the farmers on Thursday.
Presiding over a meeting here with representatives of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Doaba) and the Sandhar Sugar Mill of Phagwara, the minister categorically directed the officers concerned to ensure that of the Rs 72 crore payment due (since the last three years) towards the farmers, Rs 22 crore must be realized soon and credited into the accounts of farmers by selling the property of the mill at Bhuna in Haryana.
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Mann said the 254-km long Delhi-Katra highway will be constructed at a cost Rs 11,510 crore and will pass through nine districts of the state -- Jalandhar, Sangrur, Malerkotla, Patiala, Kapurthala, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur.
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In January 2019, a special CBI court in Panchkula also sentenced Rahim and three others to life imprisonment for the murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati over 16 years ago. His conviction on August 25, 2017 had led to violence in Panchkula and Sirsa, leaving 41 people dead and over 260 injured.
According to customs officials, "The gold was in the form of a paste which was wrapped in black tape in two packets. The total weight of the packets was 433 grams. After removing the tape and other impurities from gold, it weighs 397 grams."
