Rs 198.64 crore given to sugar mills to make payment to farmers: Uttarakhand government

Dehradun, May 08: The Uttarakhand government on Saturday said an amount of Rs 198.64 crore has been given to public and cooperative sector sugar mills for making immediate payment to sugarcane growers.

The amount was made available after Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat was apprised with the situation, the state's Minister for Sugarcane Development and Sugar Industries Swami Yatishwaranand said.

An amount of Rs 198.64 crore has been credited into the bank accounts of public sector and cooperative sugar mills of Bajpur, Nadehi, Kichcha and Doiwala for making immediate payment to sugarcane farmers, he said.

It is for the first time in many years that sugarcane farmers in Uttarakhand would be receiving payments for their produce immediately after the end of the crushing season, he said.

"Farmers are in a bad shape in the time of COVID-19. The government is sensitive to their problems. It is for the first time in two decades that this kind of urgency has been shown in making payment to sugarcane growers," the minister said.