Lucknow / June 1, 2021
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Uttar Pradesh sugar sector rapidly ramped up the hand sanitiser industry to help India fight the deadly coronavirus, which has crippled the global socioeconomic matrices since the outbreak of the first wave last year.
While only a handful of hand sanitiser units were functioning in UP before the first wave of pandemic, the state plants have collectively installed capacity of manufacturing more than 0.60 million litres of hand sanitiser daily.
Till March 25, 2021, a record 20 million litres of hand sanitiser had already been manufactured by 97 sugar mills and some standalone plants in UP.
According to UP additional chief secretary, excise department, Sanjay Bhoosreddy, the hand sanitiser produced by these units was not only being utilised in the state but also being sent to other states.
“The sugar mills and other units in UP are playing a vital role in breaking the chain of the second wave of the novel coronavirus infection through the manufacture of hand sanitisers,” he informed.
The sanitisers produced at these sugar mills have helped sanitise more than 5,000 villages and 4,000 public offices so far.
“Sanitisers are being continuously produced in sugar mills and used especially in sugarcane producing villages regularly to break the chain of Covid-19 infection in UP countryside. Besides, awareness programmes about coronavirus, including its prevention are also being organised for farmers,” he pointed out.
For example, in Saharanpur district, as many as 585 villages, 128 towns and 393 public offices have been sanitised with sanitisers produced in sugar mills. Furthermore, the sugar mills have helped sanitise 194 villages, 18 towns and 139 public offices 139 public offices in Meerut; 224 villages, 20 towns and 358 public offices in Moradabad; and 152 Villages, 10 towns, 109 public offices in Bareilly.
Similarly, 143 villages, 41 towns and 511 public offices in Lucknow; 136 villages, 58 towns, 208 public offices in Devipatan division; 21 villages, 8 towns and 36 public offices in Ayodhya; 135 villages, 55 towns, 168 public offices in Deoria; as well as 25 villages, 5 towns and 66 public offices in Gorakhpur have also been sanitised under the ongoing campaign.
While the hand sanitiser industry has now attained a major milestone in UP, it has also helped the state excise department in mopping up larger pie of revenue compared to what the segment contributed earlier.
(Virendra Singh Rawat is a Lucknow based journalist, who writes on contemporary issues of industry, economy, agriculture, infrastructure, budget etc)