The Hindu : Karnataka News : Aland sugar unit to be expanded

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 26, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

Aland sugar unit to be expanded

Special Correspondent

GULBARGA: The State Government has decided to take up a project to expand the crushing capacity of the Aland Cooperative Sugar Factory from 1,250 tonnes per day (TPD) to 2,500 TPD and appoint a committee of experts to workout modalities for the purpose.

Disclosing this to presspersons here on Monday, the former Minister S.K. Kanta, who led an agitation for the revival of the factory and payment of dues to sugarcane farmers, said the Sugar Director, Manjunath, took a decision in this regard at a meeting in Bangalore on April 16. The meeting also decided to establish a distillery unit to use the molasses generated at Aland and Bidar Sahakare Sakkare Kharkhane to make the factory viable.

He said the Government has short-listed three Maharashtra-based experts in such expansion programmes to study the Aland factory and submit a report to it. The committee will also submit estimations for the expansion plan, including the proposed distillery. Mr. Kanta said the Government will approach the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) for assistance to take up the expansion programme. The NCDC has agreed in principle to provide assistance to sugar factories that take up such programmes. He said the Government has decided crush sugarcane at the Aland factory from this November. A team of officials from the Sugar Directorate had visited the sugarcane area coming under the jurisdiction of the factory. According to initial estimates, two lakh tonnes of sugarcane will be available in the Amarja Irrigation Project area alone. A proposal to set up a private sugar factory at Chincholi by a Coimbatore-based company is being considered.

The Government is in touch with the officials of that company. Mr. Kanta, who staged a rasta roko at Aland some time ago demanding payment of arrears to farmers who had supplied cane to the factory during 2001-02 and 1999-00, said at a meeting the Sugar Director had decided to clear Rs. 1.32 crore due to farmers for 2001-02 and directed the factory authorities to submit a report on the reasons for non-payment of dues for 54,000 tonnes of cane supplied during 1999-00.

Terming this a victory for the agitation launched by him, he said farmers who had supplied sugarcane will regain faith in the factory by this action. The priority of the factory should be to clear the dues of farmers, he added.

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