As many private sugar factories are allegedly cheating sugarcane growers in weighing cane and denying minimum support price, the State government on Friday informed the Legislative Assembly that it is planning to formulate a new law on the lines of the Maharashtra Regulation of Sugarcane Price (Supplied to Factories) Act, 2013, to regulate private factories.
In a reply to the debate on alleged cheating of cane growers, cane transporters and labourers involved in harvesting the crop by private sugar factories, Minister for Sugar Shivananda Patil said factories have been operating without obtaining permission from the government for crushing the cane. Three factories in Mandya have begun crushing cane this season without obtaining permission from the department. In fact, factories had applied for permission after completion of the crushing season, he said. There are 92 sugar factories and 74 have been operating now.
Unlike in Maharashtra, Karnataka has not formulated a law to regulate the functioning of sugar factories in the private sector, he said.
The government would install automatic weighing machines for weighing sugar cane transported from field to the factory. Many factories cheat cane growers in weighing by adopting various fraudulent methods, he said.
Raju Kage (Congress) said the government has not been able to control sugar factories because they were owned by the legislators and “powerful” Ministers in the State. The action should start from the top and not from the bottom, Mr. Kage said and blamed the politicians for the “corrupt” management system in private sugar factories.
The Minister said the government has been supplying free power, interest-free loans and many other concessions to farmers to improve their socio-economic conditions but factories owned by politicians cheat them by denying MSP for the sugarcane.
Lakshman Savadi, J.T. Patil and Mr. Kage (all Congress) demanded that the Minister should initiate stern action against private sugar units involved in fraudulent methods of weighing cane in sugar factories. Owing to fraudulency in weighing cane, owners set up factory after factory for every five years, they claimed.
Mr. Savadi said families from other States come to Belagavi during sugarcane harvesting season and their wages depend on the harvest of tonnes of cane. The labourers’ too get lesser wages by “fraudulent method” of weighing by factories, he said.
