Uttar Pradesh temporarily halts offloading of raw sugar

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Lucknow: In view of the deteriorating law and order situation in western Uttar Pradesh, which has been on the boil over the sugar issue, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to put a halt on the offloading of imported raw sugar in the state.

Confirming this, a senior police official of UP West said that in view of the present law and order situation, the state government has taken a conscious decision to temporarily stop the offloading of imported raw sugar rakes in the state and added that Cane Commissioner Sudhir M Bobde has reached Meerut, where he is trying to work out some kind of negotiation with the agitated farmers and the mill owners.

It may be mentioned that on Saturday, angry farmers had gheraoed the goods train that was carrying imported raw sugar from Brazil for Bajaj Hindusthan’s Thanabhavan sugar mill in Shamli station and had also burnt part of the consignment.

In fact, the farmers have also started burning their own standing sugarcane crop to protest against the cane pricing issue. Lest the situation turns serious and more farmers take to arson, especially in view of the fact the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) has called a farmers’ mahapanchayat on the issue on November 5, the state government thought it wise to douse the issue by temporarily disallowing the offloading. In fact, the cane commissioner has been instructed to camp in Meerut till the mahapanchayat is over on November 5 and try to work out some way between the millers and the farmers through negotiations.

Talking to FE, a member of ISMA said that if offloading is stopped for long, it will be detrimental for the industry. “The country’s sugar demands verge on 23.5 million tonnes, out of which the country can produce 16 million tonnes only. To meet the rest of the demand, the import of 5 million tonnes of raw sugar has been contracted from Brazil. This is absolutely necessary to meet the country’s demands. We hope that this restriction by the UP government is temporary and the matter will get diffused soon in the national interest,” he said.