Chandigarh, August 6

An amount of Rs 45 crore pending dues towards sugarcane growers for 2020-21 has been released by the cooperative sugar mills.

Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said the amount would be credited into the accounts of the growers on Friday itself. He further said the state government had released the said amount at its own level despite the Union Government still not releasing the export subsidy for 2019-20 and buffer stock subsidy worth Rs 10.56 crore of the cooperative sugar mills. Regular contact is being maintained with the Union Government to ensure its early release so as to enable the state government to release the entire pending amount, he said.

A budgetary outlay of Rs 300 crore has been made in the 2021-22 Budget for complete payment of the balance amount, said Randhawa.

He said the state government was undertaking necessary steps to increase the income of cane growers and the cooperative sugar mills would provide 20 lakh high-yield variety seeds (prepared with the assistance of the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, and the Karnal centre of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research) to the growers before the sowing season

of September-October.

Work on Rs 30 crore bio-CNG project at Batala Cooperative Sugar Mill also commenced today, whereas a similar project at the Bhogpur Cooperative Sugar Mill would begin this month. — TNS