GULBARGA: Chairperson of Renuka Sugar Factory Vidya Muchlambi, who is facing the ire of a section of sugarcane growers in Jewargi and other parts of Gulbarga district, said on Monday that she would not be cowed down by threats from farmer leaders. She said she does not regret having set up a factory at Havalga in Afzalpur taluk and running another in Aland taluk on lease.

She denied the allegations levelled by the Gulbarga District Sugarcane Growers Association against the factory and said that it was not responsible for sugarcane remaining uncrushed in the district. Pointing out that the factory had not asked farmers to take up cultivation of sugarcane this season, she said that it was only responsible for sugarcane grown in 1,500 acres of identified land. It would accept the harvest in full during the next crushing season beginning in October.

Ms. Muchlambi said it was regrettable that a few leaders under the garb of representing farmers were using the situation for their personal and political ends.

She said that in the interest of farmers, these leaders should not politicise the issue. Asked whether the farmer leaders had demanded money or other favours from the factory, she refused to elaborate.

It was unfortunate that senior officials of the factory were assaulted in front of the Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police a couple of days ago. A sugarcane officer of the Havalga factory was beaten up outside the premises of the factory, she said.

She said crushing in Havalga was taken up this year on trial basis. It was intended to crush 70,000 tonnes of sugarcane. However, the plight of sugarcane growers forced the factory to extend it to more than two lakh tonnes. As the pipes in the main boiler plant were leaking, the factory had decided to close crushing operations on Saturday.

She said despite the Aland Sugar Factory crushing a record 2.16 lakh tonnes and the Havalga factory crushing 2.07 tonnes of sugarcane, the two were running under loss due to the low recovery percentage of sugar.

While the recovery percentage of sugar crushed in Havalga had come down to 6.4 from the initial 11, it had dropped to 9 from the initial 11 in the Aland factory.

Ms. Muchlambi said that the factory had decided to limit the expansion of the Havalga plant to 3,500 tonnes a day instead of the original proposal of 5,000 tonnes a day as the Government had refused to include Sindagi taluk in Bijapur district as sugarcane area of the plant and instead, indicated that the factory would be allotted the entire Afzalpur taluk and parts of Jewargi taluk.

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