The 12 sugar mills in the state would soon have closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed, a move that the sugarcane industries department claims would address the farmers’ allegation that mill owners dupe them.

Sugarcane industries minister Awadhesh Prasad Kushwaha told The Telegraph: “Work for this has already started. It will be completed within this financial year.”

The minister said chief minister Nitish Kumar had issued the instructions for initiating the surveillance. “There have been complaints from farmers who claim that in some sugar mills, the management does not weigh the crop properly and pays them less. Taking serious note of this allegation, the department has decided to start the surveillance.”

He added that the government would bear the cost of installing the surveillance cameras. “There would be more than one CCTV camera in the mills,” said Kushwaha, adding that the mill owners have also been asked to change their weighing machines.

“Some of the weighing machines are old and rusted. Hence, they do not give the correct weight of the crops and it adversely affects the farmers. A CCTV camera would be installed where the new weighing machines would be set up,” he said.

Officials at the department said the monitoring centre for the CCTV cameras would be at its Patna office. “If the minister wants, he would be able to sit in his chamber and monitor the activities at the sugar mills,” said an official of the department.

Besides the 12 sugar mills that are operational now, 28 more are expected to open by the end of the year.

The mill owners do not have a problem with the surveillance but they believe other issues also need to be addressed by the government.

An official at Tirupati Sugars Limited in Bagaha said: “The government should address other issues like imposing entry tax on sugar from other states. The government had assured us of it but nothing has been done.”