Stressing his government’s commitment to improving the farming sector, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced that all dues of cane farmers would be cleared by October 15. “The corporation and cooperative mills will pay the backlog of cane dues by September 15 and that of the private mills will be paid by October 15 or else the government will take stern action,” the CM announced while addressing a rally after laying the foundation stone of Baghpat-Shamli section of expressway in Baghpat on Tuesday. The function was also attended by Union Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari.
Elaborating on cane dues, the CM said that even after paying Rs 36,000 crore, the farmers were yet to get around Rs 10,000 crore of dues of the 2017-18 crushing season. “We have given funds to cooperative and corporation mills through the supplementary budget and it will be paid by September 15. For private mills, the government has sanctioned Rs 4,000 crore which will be used as a soft loan by them to pay cane dues. But at any cost, they will have to pay the dues by October 15,” the CM stressed.
Claiming that Gadkari was an expert in cane development, Yogi said that the UP government was also taking steps to provide all benefits and sops to sugar industry and farmers.
The CM also made it clear that the government has opened its door to youths in government jobs. “More than one-and-a-half lakh jobs are there for youths which include 97,000 job as teachers,” he added. The function was also addressed by Gadkari, who said that the NDA government would clean Ganga by 70-80 per cent. “We have ensured that all domestic and industrial sewage fall into the river after treatment,” he said and announced a project of Rs 100 crore for the Baghpat city.
The Union minister said that the government had set up a network of roads across the country. “The focus is on UP as it is closer to New Delhi. The NHAI will construct 61-km-long road connecting Khekhda with Shamli at the cost of Rs 726 crore and the project will be completed by 2020,” he informed. Gadkari added that the Centre had speeded up the proposal to mix ethanol with petrol which would ease the burden on the Union government and protect the environment .
