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India : Sugar firm land row turns bitter
MADURAI: Sugarcane farmers have come out strongly against the State Government’s move to lease out Madura Sugar Mills at Pandiarajapuram near here to the private sector.
Farmers found private sugar mills “unreliable” and did not trust them. Only Government-owned mills gained the trust of sugarcane farmers who would supply their produce only to them, N. Palanisamy, State president of Tamil Nadu Sugarcane Farmers’ Association, told mediapersons in the city on Thursday.
“The auction to lease it out for a period of 20 years will take place on April 30. Protesting this move, farmers will stage an agitation in Vadipatti taluk (in which Pandiarajapuram is located) on Saturday (April 26).”
P.A. Karuppanan, Dindigul district secretary of the association, said that the Madura Sugar Mills had been shut for the past seven years owing to supply problems and financial constrains. The mill was nationalised in 1983-84 during the regime of late Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran.
“Unfair practices and problems”
Private mills indulged in unfair practices and farmers encountered various problems while supplying sugarcane to them, he alleged. The Madura Sugar Mills had many distinctions, one of which was that it was the first sugar mill to come up in the district, he said.
“The State Government should run the mill again. It should not be given away to any of the private players,” he said.