Bengaluru: Sugar mill owners are responsible for the hardships being faced by sugarcane farmers, said union Food and Civil Supplies Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Friday at a press conference here.
“The government has agreed to all the four demands…which include raising import duty from 15 to 40 percent, increasing export subsidy to Rs.4,000 per tonne, raising ethanol blending in petrol to 10 percent and giving soft loans of Rs.6,000 crore,” said Paswan.
Even after meeting all these demand, the sugar mill owners are denying a fair price to the farmers, added Paswan.
“Mill owners should give the money to sugarcane farmers within 15 days,” said the minister.
He said the central government rejected the fifth demand of sugarcane farmers to create a buffer stock of two million tonnes.
Paswan said arrears to sugarcane farmers in Karnataka are about Rs.2,000 crore while nationally the figure stands at Rs.22,000 crore.
Consumer protection to be strengthened
The Union Minister said market surveillance for standards and product testing has been made more effective and the amendments for the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) finalised.
Simplified standards conformity schemes have been launched for the industry to easily adopt and manufacture standardised products, Paswan, the food and civil supplies minister, said in a press conference.
Stating that five new BIS laboratories would be set up by March 2016 and the existing labs modernised, the minister said tghe government was launching a mobile app to enable consumers to verify the genuineness of BIS marked products.
“This is in addition to empowering common consumers to get ISI marked products tested in BIS labs,” he added.
Delving more on consumer protection, the union minister said the government was planning to amend the Consumer Protection Act of 1986 and felt that there should be consumer courts in every district of the country.
Stating that many customers visiting a jewellery shop do not know the difference between 22-carat grade gold and nine carat grade gold, Paswan said the government has plans to make it mandatory for jewellery showrooms to prominently display information and also place a magnifying glass for examining gold.
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