Will pay farmers' dues even if defaulter sugar mills have to be sold: UP CM

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday said he will not allow anyone to exploit farmers and will ensure payment of cane dues even if the government has to 'auction defaulter mills'.

"If someone has this misunderstanding that he is going to earn by stopping cane payment to farmers, then he is wrong. The cane farmers should not worry as the government will pay their cane dues," Adityanath said while inaugurating a building of Agricultural College here.

"If needed, we will auction the defaulter mills. We have paid the dues of sugarcane farmers by auctioning one such mill in Maharajganj," he added.

The chief minister also laid the foundation stone of administrative building.

While addressing a public meeting on the occasion, he said, "soon we are going to take strict action against sugar mills which are not making payments to sugarcane farmers".

"There are nine sugarcane mills in your district out of which 6 have paid the cane prices. We will soon tighten the noose around the remaining three mills that have not paid the dues," he said.

Adityanath said his government is making a lot of efforts to get rid of the stagnation created by Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party in the past years.

"The result of that effort is being seen in the form of welfare of farmers and youth. There is transparency in recruitment for government jobs in Uttar Pradesh. We do not give jobs for any particular caste, region or district and every youth of the state has a right on it. Those who rob Uttar Pradesh's youth of jobs will be jailed," he said.

The chief minister also urged farmers to stop burning stubble and sugarcane leaves.

"Because of it, there is smog in the entire state, including Delhi-NCR, which is very harmful to environment and health. People are also facing respiratory problems," he said.