HYDERABAD/NIZAMABAD: After Telangana got Statehood in 2014, the TRS had assured that the Nizam Deccan Sugars Limited (NDSL) would be revived. Soon after coming to power in the State, the then Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy led a group of farmers to Maharashtra, where sugar factories are run on cooperative-basis by farmers themselves. In the meantime, the employees, with a hope that the factory would be revived, non-cooperated with the Delta Sugars management, which finally announced lay off in 2015. Around 300 permanent employees of the factory were rendered jobless. “The Delta Sugars management has been settling the amounts of the retired employees,” an employee said.
However, revival of the factory is now very difficult, as the farmers have switched to other crops and are no longer raising sugarcane. There were cases in the courts filed by Delta Sugars and the State government. The private management of the sugar mill had approached the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in 2017 seeking liquidation.
The proposed cooperative system too would not work in Telangana as the farmers would not have such huge amounts to invest, a former employee says. Another reason is that the sugar yield is just eight to ten per cent in Telangana, whereas it is 13 to 14 per cent in Maharashtra, due to the climatic conditions there.
Since, the pink party came to power and Kalvakuntla Kavitha was elected as an MP from Nizamabad, the sugar factory became a political tool. Kavitha assured to reopen the sugar factory to undo the injustice done to Telangana factories by the combined Andhra Pradesh government. But, the State government did not succeed in reopening the factory. Now, BJP MP Dharmapuri Arvind and other Opposition leaders are demanding that the sugar factory be reopened. The TRS government even assured to regularise all the employees of the sugar factory, but in reality the employees lost their jobs.Besides factories and distilleries, the sugar factory has a workshop near Nagarjunasagar, where materials and components required for the factory used to be manufactured.
Confectioneries
In 1952, there was a severe drought in Bodhan area, which affected sugarcane production. At that time, the factory management, in order to save the employees, started the production of ‘NIFA’ brand confectioneries. The advertisements issued at that time described the sugar factory as a ‘modern one’. The factory also owns a building in Hyderabad “Chakkera Bhavan”. Now, some portion of this building has been rented out to other government offices. A small portion of the building now houses the office of the NSF.(The story is the second in a two-part series about the factory, the first of which appeared in these columns on Feb 9)
‘Need govt help’
Bodhan Sugarcane Growers Association president K Srinivas Reddy says that farmers are ready to raise sugarcane if the government encourages them
Agriculture Minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy says that before the ensuing Assembly Budget session, the State government will come out with a draft note for discussion. “We want to encourage farmers in the cooperative sector, like in Maharashtra. There, farmers grow sugarcane and run sugar factories,’’ he said