Bhopal, Sep 21 (IANS) Sugar traders in Madhya Pradesh have stopped procuring fresh stock from mills and threatened to go on strike from Oct 1 in protest against the state government’s move to confiscate the commodity from wholesalers and introducing license for them.
“We oppose the state government’s auctioning of the seized sugar stocks and introducing a ‘licence raj’ under the cover of control order,” said Ramesh Khandelwal, president of the state sugar merchants’ federation.

“We have decided to go on strike and if the government does not return the sugar it seized, we will surrender our licences”, Khandelwal told IANS.

Traders also stopped lifting fresh sugar from the mills since Sunday and have informed transporters and brokers not to load fresh stock.

The government, after introducing a sugar control order in August, conducted a series of raids across the state and seized more than 80,000 quintals of sugar in a month.

As a result of the auctioning, retail price of sugar dipped to Rs.31 a kg before rising to Rs.34-35 a kg.

Coming down on the traders, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Paras Chandra Jain said, “They are bound by law of the land and should cooperate or else the government would consider taking action.”

The minister said the decision to release the seized stocks lay with the district administrations and traders could move court to get it released.

“We have already allowed traders to stock 2,000 quintals of sugar and a reasonable profit margin. No action was taken against licensed traders,” Jain added.