Sugar spat turns bitter in Uttarakhand

The food department is at loggerheads with the sugar department in Uttarakhand over a cabinet decision to buy sugar at Rs 32 a kg for ration-card holders.

The spat between top officials of the two departments has intensified at a time when the sugar department is facing an uphill task of selling sugar piled up in its godowns. The sugar department is also not allowing government-controlled sugar mills to sell sugar to the food department for ration-card holders at Rs 32 a kg.

Under the cabinet decision, the food department must buy sugar from government-controlled sugar mills at Rs 32 per kg. But the decision is not being welcomed by the sugar department, which claims that the price of the commodity keeps changing. "How can we sell our sugar at a fixed price of Rs 32 a kg when the price keeps changing virtually on daily basis," said a senior official of the sugar department.

Last year, the food department had bought sugar from government mills at Rs 32 a kg when the price was Rs 29.5 a kg in the market. "At that time, sugar mills have made huge profit when we paid Rs 2.5 more than the market price. The mills readily sold the sugar to our department without even giving it a second thought," said a senior official of the food department requesting anonymity. But since the prices of sugar firmed up earlier this year, the sugar mills have been reluctant to sell at Rs 32 a kg, the official said.

"We will again approach the chief minister for his intervention in the matter," he said.

Sugar Secretary M C Joshi said since the government order on the cabinet decision has not been issued, the sugar mills are facing difficulty to sell sugar at a fixed price.

The chief minister is likely to intervene soon in the matter, the officials of the two departments said.