The Mohiuddinpur sugar mill run by the Uttar Pradesh State Sugar Corporation (UPSSC) will again be run by the UP government this year.
Mohiuddinpur sugar mill was the only mill that could not find a buyer in 2010. Other 10 operational sugar mills under the Sugar Corporation were handed over to different private players by the Mayawati government.
The Akhilesh Yadav government has sanctioned R10 crore for the repair and maintenance of Mohiuddinpur sugar mill. Efforts are on to make it functional by January so that it can catch up with the current crushing season that begins on November 1. Sources say, the decision to run this mill once again was taken as all efforts to sell it had failed.
?Initially, the government had tried selling the Mohiuddinpur factory along with ten other operational sugar factories under the UP State Sugar Corporation. While ten factories found buyers, the only remaining mill in running condition that could not be sold was the Mohiuddinpur unit in Meerut. The government tried to sell it through the Swiss Challenge Method, but that too did not succeed. The idea was dropped and since then, the factory remained closed for two seasons. Since the entire process of selling the factories had run into a lot of controversies under the previous government, it has been decided the Sugar corporation will run it again,? said an official on condition of anonymity.
According to officials, the decision is not a prudent move. ?A better option would have been to transfer this mill to the UP Cooperative Sugar Federation, which is already running 23 mills. They have a pool of existing manpower, which could have been used to run this mill too,? he said.