The Maharashtra government, in a bid to woo the cooperative sector ahead of the ensuing Parliamentary and Assembly elections, has announced that sick or closed sugar units will not be given on lease to the private sector.
The option will be considered only if there were no offers from cooperative sugar mills in line with the bid document, state cooperation minister Patangrao Kadam said Monday.
Kadam’s statement is crucial as there are 193 sugar cooperatives and of which due to inadequate sugarcane availability 154 mills are participating in the crushing season of 2008-09.
The priority for running such mills on lease will be accorded to cooperative sugar mills or any other cooperative organisation from the similar district and later to the mills or organisations from the neighbouring districts.
So far, the state government has given 23 mills on lease to the private sector. These mills have a total daily crushing capacity of 47,050 metric tonne. These mills have been given on lease since 2004 in phases. The decision was taken to protect the machinery and jobs of the incumbent employees.
Last week, at the beginning of the crushing season at Sonhira cooperative sugar mill situated in the sugarcane-rich Sangli district, Kadam said that the cooperative mills would be chosen for leasing out closed or sick units and that requests from the private sector to gain leases of sugar units would not be entertained.
Meanwhile, of the 154 sugar cooperative units, as on November 3 so far only 17 units have started work in the the crushing season and crushed 3.86 lakh tonne. The average sugar recovery was mere 8.70%. During 2007-08 season, all 46 units had begun crushing and crushed 12 lakh tonne with an average recovery of 8.60%.
The state government and the Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories in Maharashtra expect that by November 15, all units will start their crushing operations.
The sugar production is expected to be 57 to 60 lakh tonne compared to the last seaon?s 91 lakh tonne.