Govt initiates penal action against 52 sugar mills

Action taken for failing to furnish information in prescribed format

The government today initiated penal actions against 52 sugar mills across the country for not furnishing details online about sugar production, dispatches and stock position of the 2011-12 sugar season that ended in September to the Food Ministry.

Officials said as under the penal provisions, state governments have been directed to lodge FIRs against the erring sugar mills in local police station.

According to an official statement, of the 52 sugar mills, 27 are in Maharashtra, eight in Uttar Pradesh, nine mills in Karnataka, two mills in Madhya Pradesh, five in Andhra Pradesh and one in Odisha.  Maharashtra along with Uttar Pradesh are India’s largest sugar producing and also have the highest number of sugar mills.

 

The names include some of the big cooperative sugar mills of Maharashtra. “These mills were earlier issued show cause notices as to why that are not filing the required information online, but penal action has been taken against them after they failed to reply satisfactorily to the notices,” a senior government official said.

In 2011-2012 sugar season that ended in September, 527 sugar mills were engaged in sugarcane crushing across the country, of which 484 mills have furnished information about production, storage and supplies to the central government in the prescribed format.

However, action has been initiated against those who have not furnished the information.

The online platform facilitates all sugar mills in the country to submit online data on sugarcane crushed, sugar production, dispatches and available stock of sugar. This platform is expected to become the backbone in future for the management of sugar sector, the statement added.      

The country had produced 26 million tonnes of sugar in the last year, higher than the annual demand of 22 million tonnes.