Centre accepts Rs 876-cr demand for sugarcane farmers, says Punjab minister

Punjab Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa today put forth the demand of Rs 876.43 crore for sugarcane farmers of Punjab before Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh.

Randhawa claimed that the union minister accepted the demand.

The Centre today announced a Rs 8,500-crore package to boost farmers' income by creating a buffer stock for sugar, enhancing ethanol production capacity and fixing a minimum selling price to cut mill losses.

During the meeting at Krishi Bhawan, the Punjab minister emphatically raised issues concerning Punjab's farm sector.

In a statement, he said he handed over a memorandum to the Union Minister regarding a package of Rs 876.43 crore to sugarcane farmers from Punjab, which included an amount of Rs 298.43 crore for cooperative sugar mills of the state and Rs 578 crore for state's 7 private sugar mills.

The Cooperation Minister said the Union Minister informed him that the Cabinet has given green signal to Rs 8,000 crore package for sugarcane farmers in the country, which in turn would benefit Punjab farmers too.

Divulging details, Randhawa said he also took up the issue of releasing the Centre's share pertaining to computerisation of all 3,367 primary cooperative societies of Punjab.

He revealed that it would cost Rs 3 lakh per society and the project in totality would cost Rs 106 crore in the ratio of 60:35:05, Punjab has made arrangements for contributing its share of 35 per cent which comes to Rs 37 crore.

In the budget of the present year, a sum of Rs 18.50 crore has been kept and the provision for the same amount has been kept for next year also. Now, the share of the union government amounting to Rs 64 crore as per its 60 per cent contribution is due.

The Cooperation Minister thanked the Union Government for accepting the demands and also took up with the Union Minister the issue of the dairy farmers and demanded that on the pattern of crops, the minimum prices for milk must also be fixed so as to avoid losses to the dairy farmers in case the prices come down.