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We lost hopes of revival of Nizam Sugars: KCR
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday indicated that the State government had lost hopes on revival of the Nizam Sugar Factory (NSF) as farmers in the region had not shown inclination to help the authorities in running the unit along the lines of cooperative societies in Maharashtra.
Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday indicated that the State government had lost hopes on revival of the Nizam Sugar Factory (NSF) as farmers in the region had not shown inclination to help the authorities in running the unit along the lines of cooperative societies in Maharashtra.
“It is a closed chapter,” KCR remarked, when the issue was raised by N Uttam Kumar Reddy of the Congress during a short discussion in the Assembly.
Reddy had pointed out that the TRS party, in its manifesto, had promised to reopen the factory, but later went back on its assurance.
Intervening in the discussion, the Chief Minister said that Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy had led a group of 400 farmers to Maharashtra to study the functioning of sugar cooperative societies in that State and had persuaded farmers to help run NSF on the lines of cooperative societies in Maharashtra.
The government had even offered to hand over the factory in a fully running condition; yet, the farmers did not show any interest. The Chief Minister said that 95 per cent of farmers in the region had given up sugarcane cultivation.
KCR recalled that, during the Congress rule, he had written to the Centre asking them to revive the factory.
Subsequently, then Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy had appointed a committee, which favored takeover of the factory by the government.
As the issue was not addressed by the Congress government, most of the farmers had stopped cultivating sugarcane.
Although the factory needed 10 lakh tonnes of sugarcane, the entire output from existing cultivation had come down to one lakh tonnes.
After the TRS came to power, he had personally discussed the issue with the farmers, but they refused to help run the factory, he said.
In response, Leader of Opposition K. Jana Reddy claimed that farmers of the region were ready for revival of NSF. He said that his party MLA from Karimnagar district was ready to bring the farmers together to run the factory.
The Chief Minister said that in that case he was ready to help in the revival process. The Chief Minister said that even at this stage if the Congress could convince the farmers, he would constitute a committee to look into the cost involved in reviving the factory.
The government was ready to pay Rs 250 crore to the farmers to cultivate sugarcane and the Agriculture Department would provide new variety of sugarcane seeds to the farmers.
He asked the peoples’ representatives from Nizamabad district to meet the farmers and persuade them to contribute towards revival of the sugar factory.
