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Yogi Adityanath says sugarcane farmers will be “our future”
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath distributes share certificates to 50.10 lakh sugarcane farmers registered with cooperative mills and societies
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday said the state government was working on a permanent solution for sugarcane farmers of Uttar Pradesh and asserted that they “are going to be our future.”
Yogi Adityanath said this at a function where he distributed share certificates to 50.10 lakh (5.01 million) farmers registered with cooperative sugarcane societies and cooperative sugar mill societies to make their functioning transparent.
“Farmers have been our top-most priority and all our efforts have been made keeping their welfare paramount. Today’s event has revived the cooperative movement of the country and our farmers are now on their way to not only be participants but also the owners of the system they are associated with,” Yogi Adityanath said, addressing farmers at Lok Bhavan in Lucknow.
“I would like to express my deepest gratitude towards all our ‘Annadatas’ for their contribution towards making the state the top economy despite the natural challenges put forward by the varying seasons,” the chief minister said.
“Sugarcane farmers are going to be our future. No sugar mills will remain in loss in the coming times and the government is working on a permanent solution for sugarcane farmers of Uttar Pradesh,” the chief minister said.
Sugarcane will also be used to produce ethanol abundantly to tackle the ups and downs of the sugar market, he said.
He emphasised the importance of technology in ensuring transparency and making functioning hassle-free.
“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,” the chief minister asserted.
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, U.P. took risks, prepared a system and set up Covid helpdesks to safeguard lives and livelihood of farmers even during challenging times, he said.
The chief minister added that his government has so far paid “a record” ₹1.77 lakh crore directly to sugarcane farmers, which is 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.
“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 that industry will also be diverted to make payments,” Yogi Adityanath said.
He said when farmers become shareholders of the committee, they also become eligible to benefit from the profits of the committee.
The state government is going ahead with the plan for revival of sugar mills, ensuring gradual expansion of the old mills, their modernisation and upgradation.
At the event, farmers also expressed their gratitude towards the chief minister for introducing various reforms, said the government in a statement soon after the event.
U.P’s sugarcane development minister Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary, minister of state for sugarcane development and sugar mills Sanjay Singh Gangwar, chief secretary Durga Shanker Mishra, additional chief secretary (Sugar Industry & Cane Development) Sanjay R Bhoosreddy were present on the occasion.
