Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The cooperative movement in sugar mill sector has literally failed in Madhya Pradesh. Once the state used to have at least five cooperative sugar mills but now only Naval Singh Cooperative Sugar Mill, Burhanpur is operative.
On the contrary, private sugar mills are running successfully in sundry parts of the state. Alone in Narsinghpur district, there are several private sugar mills performing well.
Sources in the Cooperative Department said that there are myriad reasons responsible for closure of cooperative sugar mills in the state. Out of them, delay in payment to sugarcane farmers remained one of the major issues.
On not getting timely payment, farmers stopped sowing sugarcane and thus supply to sugar mills got adversely affected and they were shut down. The second reason is that sugar mills were established without doing enough ground work. First farmers should be encouraged to grow sugarcane crops in large areas and then sugar mills should be established.
But things happened in the reverse manner. Owing to compelling reasons, Barlai Sugar Mill of Indore belt, Narayanpur Sugar Mill of Guna, Kailaras Sugar Mill of Morena went into liquidation and were shut down many years back.
A senior officer of the cooperative department said that lack of good leadership in cooperative sugar mill sector also became a bane. On the other hand, neighbouring Maharashtra is scripting success stories in cooperative sugar mill sector as people there have a strong cooperative feeling. Even Uttar Pradesh is faring well in the cooperative sugar mill field.
Former leader of opposition (LoP) in Madhya Pradesh Assembly, Govind Singh said that cooperative sugar mills mainly shut shop due to delay in payments to sugarcane farmers and corruption. He asserted that the cooperative department is on the brink of collapse.
Meanwhile, cooperative department’s Joint Commissioner (Marketing) DP Singh said that latest survey has been done to revive Kailaras Sugar Mill. He however argued that sugarcane cultivation area should be increased to ensure enough supply of sugarcane.
