During the past four years, sugarcane growers in Uttar Pradesh have received payment of Rs 1.4 lakh crore for their produce and all payments for the last three sugar seasons have been cleared, the state’s sugar minister Suresh Rana said on Thursday.

While stating that the state has ensured that the sugar mills make the payments in time, he said the government is keeping a close watch on four sugar manufacturers — Bajaj Hindustan, Modi, Simbhaoli and Yadus — which he said have been laggards in clearing the cane payments to farmers. He said the government won’t hesitate to take action against them.

“We have issued recovery certificates to these groups. Upon direction from the chief minister, we are keeping a close watch on these groups, be it Modi, Simbhaoli and Bajaj Hindustan. We are taking regular action against them,” Rana told reporters in a webbased meeting.

Rana said so far the mills have cleared nearly 67% of the cane payments to the farmers for the current sugar season. Less than Rs 10,000 crore cane dues are yet to be cleared by mills and most of this is due to these major players.