The sale of about a score of financially beleaguered cooperative sugar mills to the private sector in Maharashtra has raised sugarcane farmers’ hackles as well as drawn barbs from Nabard.
The state govt. has decided not to sell any cooperative sugar mills under liquidation to private hands in future. Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has taken this important decision without delay.
Official sources say, such weak sugar units, however, could be sold to cooperative sugar factories with strong finances.
Cooperatives Minister Harshvardhan Patil says since 2006 about 26 cooperative sugar factories under liquidation have taken over by private parties.
The government’s move comes on the heels of hard-hitting observations made by the NABARD in its annual reports in the past three years, on the manner in which the sale of loss-making and closed cooperative mills was done.
Besides, several farmers’ organisations have been stepping up their criticism against the sale of cooperative units to private parties.