Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday announced withdrawal of cases filed against farmers for stubbleburning. It also announced to waive off the fines imposed on them for the offence.

The state is slated to go to polls early next year.

An official release issued by the state government quoted chief minister Yogi Adityanath as saying, “The government will withdraw stubble-burning cases registered against the farmers and the decision on refund of fine will also be taken.” The CM held an interaction with farmers on Wednesday evening.

According to the release, Adityanath promised farmers that his government will ensure that all previous payments of farmers that have been pending since 2010 are cleared before the new cane-crushing season. He said the decision will be communicated to all the stakeholders so that the farmers are not misguided.

The government said the CM has instructed officials to not sever electricity connection of any farmer due to pending dues. He assured farmers that a ‘One-Time Settlement (OTS)’ scheme will be introduced to ensure that they don’t have to pay interest or penalty on electricity dues.

Lashing out at the previous governments, Adityanath said the sugar mills were shut down in the ‘Sugar Bowl’ of western UP. He listed the names of the new sugar mills that were started in Pipraich-Munderwa and enhancement of the capacity of the closed Ramala sugar mill. He announced that sugar mills would start in the western region from October 20 and in the central region from October 25.

The CM said from 2007 to 2016, only Rs 95,000 crore were paid to sugarcane farmers. He claimed that over 45.74 lakh sugarcane farmers in UP have been paid a record cane price payment of more than Rs1.4 lakh crore between 2017 and 2021. “While 6 lakh metric tonnes of wheat was procured in 2016-17, this year a record 56 lakh metric tonnes of wheat was procured despite Corona,” he said.