Meerut: “Inculcate the habit of growing crops other than sugarcane because excessive production of sugar leads to more consumption of the commodity, which is a major cause of diabetes. Try sowing vegetables as well, as there is a huge market for these in Delhi. You are producing too much of sugarcane now,” said Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath in Baghpat after the foundation stone laying ceremony for developing the 154-km Delhi-Saharanpur Highway on Tuesday. The highway passes through Muzaffarnagar and Shamli -- considered sugar bowl of UP -- and will be developed with an estimated cost of Rs 1,505 crore.Patting his government’s back in clearing sugarcane dues to the tune of Rs 26,000 crore, the CM said, “We have paid Rs 26,000 crore to sugarcane farmers this year and the remaining Rs 10,000 crore will also be released soon by sugar mills. We have made adequate arrangements for the same.”Union minister of transport and road highways Nitin Gadkari, who was also in Baghpat for the stone-laying ceremony for the project, said, “The situation will change very fast for farmers of the region. More ethanol will be made from molasses and mixed with petrol. There will be ready demand for their produce and therefore farmers will earn more."On ethanol mixing, CM Yogi said, “We will soon have this mechanism in place. But it might take two years. Ethanol will also fetch you (farmers) good profits.”Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, sugarcane is again causing a great deal of embarrassment for the incumbent BJP government as Rs 10,000 crore dues to farmers is still pending. As a result, farmers are unhappy with the BJP government, and this has given ample ammunition to opposition parties to target the ruling government for leaving cultivators in the lurch. In fact, in the recently held Kairana Lok Sabha bypoll, pending cane dues was the main election issue so much so that the opposition coined the term "Jinnah Vs Ganna" to cash in on farmers' sentiments. Eventually, BJP lost in its own turf by 44,000 votes to RLD candidate.Meanwhile in Shamli, police detained 25 Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) activists at Shamli railway station who were on their way to Baghpat to show black flags to CM Yogi in protest against non-payment of pending sugarcane dues to farmers. The activists were later released.”

Stay updated with all the Meerut Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.