"The government must take a quick decision on sugar. Import of raw sugar should be stopped and export of sugar should be opened and incentivised," Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh said.
"At prevailing prices sugar industry is not sustainable. GOI must act quickly and decisively," he said in two tweets.
Expressing serious concern over the decision of the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), an organisation of mill owners not to run their factories, JD(U) MP K C Tyagi said that if they do not start running them by December 4, the government should acquire and run the sugar mills.
"JD(U) demands that the GoM set up Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should try to resolve the problem by talking to representatives of sugarcane farmers as well. If mill-owners throw tantrums in running the mills after December 4, the government should acquire the sugar mills and run them," he said.
Agitating sugarcane farmers in are on a two-day bandh since yesterday demanding higher prices for sugarcane.
Recently, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan led an all-party delegation to meet the Prime Minister over the issue.
ISMA had served an ultimatum to UP government that if SAP (state advisory price) of sugar cane was increased, there would be no crushing this year and mills would come to a stand still as it is burdened with over Rs 3,000 crore debt.
It had been pressing that the government should implement the recommendations of Rangarajan Committee and bring down SAP.