The Hindu : Bidar sugar unit to take part in protest by farmers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 19, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bidar

Bidar sugar unit to take part in protest by farmers

By Our Staff Correspondent

BIDAR, FEB. 18 . Bidar Sahakari Sakkare Karakhane will participate in a protest to be organised by farmers against the sugar policy of the Centre and the State Government.

The Chairman of the factory, Eshwar Khandre, told presspersons on Tuesday that the sugar policy had created a situation where 20 factories in the State had defaulted on payment to farmers who had supplied sugarcane to them.

The Centre did not permit the factories to sell sugar in the open market.

They were allowed to sell only 24,000 quintals of sugar for every 1.1 lakh quintals produced. Even for this, there would be a delay in issuing licence.

The factory had a stock of 2.14 lakh quintals of sugar and 27,555 quintals of levy sugar worth Rs. 32.52 crore. But the management was forced to take loans as it could not sell the sugar, he said.

Mr. Khandre said the factory was finding it difficult even to get loans.

The State Government had stipulated that cooperative sugar factories should take loans from cooperative banks only.

But they refused to sanction even mortgage loans as the State-controlled apex bank had stopped giving them the refinance facility. This was because the Government had stopped giving them guarantee for loans to be sanctioned to the factories.

This was in violation of the directives by Reserve Bank of India and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development which had asked the States to stand guarantee for mortgage loans taken by cooperative factories with a negative net worth, he said. He said though the federation of cooperative sugar factories had written to the Government to solve the problem between the apex bank and factories, nothing had been done. If this continued, it would be difficult for cooperative factories to survive.

The factory had crushed 2,66,347 tonnes of sugarcane this season which was half the quantity crushed last year.

This was because of the low yield of sugarcane in the region. Naranja Sahakari Sakkare Karakhane and Mahatma Gandhi Sahakari Sakkare Karakhane too faced a similar situation, he said.

Mr. Khandre urged the authorities of these two factories to participate in the protest.

A meeting would be held on Friday to take a decision on launching an agitation, he added.

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