"The sugar mills have been further directed to report actual sale and dispatch of sugar, for each week, which should reach the directorate of sugar within seven days of the end of the respective weeks. Any quantity which remains unsold/undespatched in a week would stand converted into levy stock. Any sugar mill which fails to report the weekly quota of sale and dispatch of non-levy sugar within the prescribed time, will be deemed to have actually not sold and delivered the quantity as stipulated," the statement said.

Meanwhile, Gujarathi said in view of the sugar crisis, the Union government must continue with the practice of selling and dispatching sugar quota on a weekly basis. "If the new restrictions remains only for February, sugar prices will again go up in March," he said.

Echoing similar views, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson Kanhaiyalal Gidwani demanded that the new restriction of weekly sale and dispatch of sugar must be in place for the next three years, considering that the gap in demand and supply would continue.

"I am disappointed that the government order mentions these restrictions only for February, and hope that the government will continue them further. Past experience shows that sugar factories and traders never faced any action as per law, when they did not sell the prescribed sugar quota during the month. Instead they always got an extension for liquidating the old stock," he said, while speaking to the TOI.

Gidwani said if the restrictions remain in force only for February, traders will buy sugar at cheap rates, when prices fall, and sell it at a much higher price when the restrictions are lifted next month. "In such a scenario, neither the factories nor the consumers or the farmers will benefit," he pointed out.