‘Save Mandvi Sugar from going in pvt hands’: Minister submits memo
A delegation led by Minister Mukesh Patel met Minister Jagdish Vishwakarma to prevent Mandvi Sugar Co-operative from being sold to private hands. They argued that under Gujarat’s Co-operative Act, the SARFAESI Act cannot be applied for private sale. They urged the government not to transfer the factory’s license, emphasizing legal protection for the co-operative’s farmers.
In an attempt to save the closed Mandvi Sugar Co-operative Society from “going into private hands”, a delegation led by Minister of State for Environment and Forest Mukesh Patel along with other leaders met the Minister of State for Co-operation, Jagdish Vishwakarma, and made a representation.
The delegation stated that in Gujarat, the Sugar Co-operatives run as per the Gujarat Co-operative Society Act, 1961, adding the bank cannot directly sell or auction the property and machinery through SARFAESI Act to any other private party. The delegation also demanded that the state government not transfer Mandvi Sugar’s IEM (Industrial Entrepreneur Memorandum), which is the licence to run the factory, to Junnar Sugar Limited.
State cabinet minister Patel told The Indian Express, “We have made a representation to the State Minister and the Chief Minister and put forward the issue of Mandvi Sugar. Minister Vishwakarma has also assured us that going by the legal aspects of the issue, the decision will be taken in favour of farmers.”
Patel was accompanied by BJP MLA from Choryasi seat in Surat, Sandeep Desai, who is also the director of Chalthan Sugar Cooperative society, along with chairmen of seven sugar co-operative societies in South Gujarat.
Sharma, who is the president of Mandvi Sugar Bachavo farmers’ committee, said the Mandvi sugar factory started operations in 2015 and closed in 2017. The cooperative has 55,000 members whose total debts to be recovered from Mandvi Sugar is Rs 23.87 crore. To set up the factory in Vadod village, the farmers had created a body, donated funds, and taken a loan of Rs 20 crore from the state government. Besides, for construction and purchase of machinery, and for running the mills, the farmers’ body took a loan of Rs 94.10 crore from various banks led by the Union Bank of India.
To recover the dues, the bank authorities filed a petition with Debt Recovery Tribunal, Ahmedabad, in 2018. The case is still pending. The bank authorities contacted Surat district collector in 2019 and through SARFAESI (The Securitization and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest) Act 2002, took the nod to proceed with the auction procedure of movable and immovable properties of Mandvi Sugar.
Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/ahmedabad/save-mandvi-sugar-from-going-in-pvt-hands-minister-submits-memo-9588294/
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