NIZAMABAD: BJP candidate Dharmapuri Arvind on Friday described the decision of the state government to release Rs 43 crore for the revival of closed sugar factories in Nizamabad, Jagtial and Medak districts as “an election stunt” by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.
Arvind was addressing a press conference at the BJP office here on Friday. He alleged that the state government paid Rs 43 crore to one of the banks to attract the attention of sugarcane farmers, employees and workers, instead of clearing the pending loans through instalments.
“Revanth already appointed a committee to look into the reopening of sugar factories. The committee members are saying that sugar factories will be reopened by the end of 2025. In the meantime, the CM made a statement that the sugar factories would reopen before September 17,” Arvind said.
He said that the chief minister’s statement was made without taking into consideration the report filed by the committee. “The committee members have no self-respect, they should resign in protest that their report was disregarded,” Arvind said.
He said that if the government genuinely wanted to revive the sugar factories, it would need to pump in Rs 700 to Rs 800 crore. “The government should do a lot of legwork and prepare an action plan. The chief minister did not do any such exercise. He is simply doing election stunts,” Arvind said.
He said the chief minister should utilise his experience in the real estate business to resolve the issue of reviving sugar factories. “This is not the correct way to revive the sugar factories. The Centre had conducted a year-long exercise and came up with a perfect action plan for the revival,” Arvind said.
Turning his attention to the election campaign, he quoted Modi’s words that as long as BJP was in power in the country, there was no threat to SC, ST, BC and OBC reservations.