The State government should establish an independent ministry and department for the sugar sector, as a concrete measures towards finding solutions to the crisis in the sugarcane sector, said Janata Dal (S) district president Ashok Pujari.
Major industry
Talking to presspersons here on Friday, he said that the sector had grown into a major industry whose economy was directly linked with a vast population of farmers, and provided employment to a large number of workers. Yet, there was no independent department to monitor problems concerning such a major sector.
The government should appoint an honest IAS official as Principal Secretary for the independent department, he suggested. The minister and the head of the department should also be given adequate powers to take decisions without any obstruction from other officials, he said.
Presently, the sugar sector is under the Ministry of Co-operation. Mr. Pujari called the Directorate of Sugar in Bengaluru “ineffective” and “toothless”. District Sugarcane Growers’ Association president T.T. Murkatnal said the centre should evolve new pricing mechanism for sugar on the lines of the system adopted for domestic and commercial LPG cylinders. The price of commercial sugar, which is consumed by various industries like confectionary, soft drinks, ice creams and hotels, should be double the price for domestic sugar.
Loan waiver
Demanding a waiver of all crop loans in the 83 taluks facing the possibility of drought if there are was no adequate rainfall in next one week, he said the centre could do a great service to the farmers even if it released just one percent of money it earned from 2G, 3G spectrum and other auctions.
Mr. Murkatnal reminded the gathering that during the Legislature session in Belagavi, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had promised that the government would clear sugarcane dues Rs. 930 crore by July 31, but only Rs. 350 crore had been released till Thursday.
