The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh is moving fast and deftly to sweeten farmers’ stake in the state’s sugar sector, which has an annual turnover of about ~35,000 crore and touches the lives of four million farm households.

State Cane Development and Sugar Industries Minister Suresh Rana has convened on Wednesday a meeting of the owners of all those sugar mills that have been defaulting on cane payments, to address the issue of pending dues. Prominent among the defaulting groups are Modi Group, Simbhaoli, Bajaj Hindusthan, Wave, Yadu, Uttam, Indian Potash and Birla.

Days after taking over as UP chief minister, Adityanath had, on March 23, directed sugar mills to settle farmers’ arrears within a month and warned of strict action against the defaulting units. In its election manifesto, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had promised to ensure cane farmers’ payments within the stipulated 14 days after the purchase of cane at the factory gate.

Currently, arrears totalling ~6,000 crore are pending on private mills, and the April 23 deadline for clearing payments is less than two weeks away.