DW BUREAU / chandigarh Haryana Cooperation Minister Dr Banwari Lal said that all the sugar mills of the state should make timely payments of cane. A target of crushing about 500 lakh quintals of sugarcane has been fixed during the current financial year. The crushing work of sugarcane in all the sugar mills of the State will start in the first week of November.All the preparations for this must be completed by the end of October directed by the Minister while presiding over the review meeting of the officers of the Cooperative Federation today. Additional Chief Secretary, Cooperation Department, TVS N Prasad, Managing Director, Haryana Dairy Development Cooperative Federation and Managing Director, HAFED, A Sreenivas, Managing Director, Haryana State Federation of Cooperative Sugar Mills, Captain Manoj Kumar along with officers of the Cooperative Department were present. Dr Banwari Lal said that the government has taken important decisions in the interest of farmers. There should not be any problem in ensuring the successful implementation of the same. He said that the work of the micro irrigation scheme should be started through cooperative PACS. Apart from this, necessary arrangements should be made for ensuring proper electricity, water, toilets, canteen etc. in the rest houses for the convenience of the farmers. The Minister gave strict directions to the officers of the department that repair and maintenance of all sugar mills of the state should be ensured in a time-bound manner so that no mill could be closed during the sugarcane crushing season this year. He said that apart from increasing the capacity of sugar mills, special emphasis should be laid on setting up ethanol plants, and making other essential things like jaggery, Khand, candy etc. so that sugar mills can become self-reliant. Co-operative sugar mills should manufacture jaggery and make it available for sale at HAFED and VITA centres.Dr Banwari Lal said that apart from increasing the capacity of sugar mills, special attention should be paid to their maintenance and repair so as to avoid any mechanical fault. He further directed that the sugar mill should not be closed due to any valid technical reason. Arrangements for spare equipment should be made in advance. To increase the income of sugar mills more attention should also be paid to increasing the sales, directed the Minister. The cooperation department should move forward toward prosperity and economic stability. The Cooperation Minister said that the State Government endeavours for making the Cooperation Department prosperous and further make the department self-reliant. For this, emphasis is being laid on starting reform programmes.He said that in order to make sugarcane seeds available to the farmers in sugar mills, it should be ensured that sugarcane farmers get themselves registered on the Meri Fasal Mera Byora portal. Besides this, inventory management should be prepared online for the availability and requirements of sugar mills so that all mills can get information about it. A WhatsApp group of all sugar mills should also be created, directed the Minister. (editor@dailyworld.in)