Rs10,000 cr due to cane farmers

New Delhi, May 28

As much as Rs 10,000 crore is due to farmers across the country for sugarcane sold to millers in last two seasons, with maximum outstanding in Uttar Pradesh.

Cane arrears to farmers stood at Rs 9,361 crore till early this month for the current 2015-16 season ending September, while Rs 780 crore is outstanding for the previous season, Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said. 

Briefing media about the government’s measures to help cash-starved millers in clearing cane arrears, Paswan said: “Over the past two years, the policy interventions by the government have shown remarkable progress in reducing arrears.”

During the 2014-15 season, he said, cane arrears had touched nearly Rs 22,000 crore but after several government interventions have come down to Rs 780 crore of which Rs 191 crore pertains to Uttar Pradesh, the country’s second-largest sugar producing state.  

In the current season as well, cane arrears had touched a peak of Rs 14,000 crore and same has come down to Rs 9,361 crore till early this month. —PTI