Bengaluru, June 19 (IANS): Sugar mill owners are responsible for the hardships being faced by sugarcane farmers, said union Food and Civil Supplies Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Friday at a press conference here.

"The government has agreed to all the four demands...which include raising import duty from 15 to 40 percent, increasing export subsidy to Rs.4,000 per tonne, raising ethanol blending in petrol to 10 percent and giving soft loans of Rs.6,000 crore," said Paswan.

Even after meeting all these demand, the sugar mill owners are denying a fair price to the farmers, added Paswan.

"Mill owners should give the money to sugarcane farmers within 15 days," said the minister.

He said the central government rejected the fifth demand of sugarcane farmers to create a buffer stock of two million tonnes.

Paswan said arrears to sugarcane farmers in Karnataka are about Rs.2,000 crore while nationally the figure stands at Rs.22,000 crore.