DW BUREAU / Chandigarh Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday announced increasing the price of sugarcane to Rs 380 per quintal from the existing Rs 360 per quintal. He announced a hike in SAP (state agreed price) of sugarcane on the floor of the Punjab Assembly on the concluding day of its brief session. In August 2021, the then Congress government had announced a Rs 50 per quintal hike in SAP of sugarcane to Rs 360 per quintal. Mann said farmers will get an additional Rs 20 per quintal under SAP of sugarcane as compared to last year. With this decision, the state government will spend an additional Rs 200 crore annually to benefit the farmers. Mann said the farmers of the state eagerly want to adopt sugarcane crop under crop diversification, but they are hesitant for it due to lack of adequate price and timely payment of the crop. At present, sugarcane is cultivated on just 1.25 lakh hectares of land in Punjab, while the total crushing capacity of sugar mills was around 2.50 lakh hectares. This is why the state government has decided to enhance the price to supplement the income of farmers, he said. Informing the House about the present status of the payments, the chief minister said the cooperative sugar mills have already paid the entire dues of the farmers but two private sugar mills have not paid the dues yet. He informed that the owners of these mills have fled from the country, adding that the state government has already initiated the process to confiscate their assets to pay the pending dues of the farmers. He also slammed the Congress and Akalis for patronising the gangsters in the state for their vested political interests. During his speech to support Confidence motion in favor of state government, the Chief Minister unequivocally said that gangsters have not been born in these six months after his government has assumed charge of office. He said that as a fact of matter these gangsters have been patronized by the Congress and Akali leaders during their government. Bhagwant Mann said that these leaders and parties used these youth for their vested interests by handing over guns to them. The Chief Minister said that the state government has issued a look out notice against the gangster who had fled from Police custody on Sunday. He said that the Police officer Pritpal Singh has been sacked from the force and a case has been registered against him after which he had been sent on remand till October 7 by the court. Bhagwant Mann said that a special operation has been started to nab the gangster and he will be soon behind the bars. (editor@dailyworld.in)