Hope for Bihar cane growers

Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar's initiative for expansion and diversification of sugar and allied industries has brought a ray of hope to sugarcane farmers in Bihar as three companies have shown interest in setting up sugar complexes in the state.

Proprietors of Hindustan Bajaj, Rajshree group and an industrialist, Ashok Goyal, have shown interest in setting up sugar complexes here, Pawar, on a day's visit to the state, said.

While Kushagra Bajaj of Hindustan Bajaj had shown interest in setting up complexes comprising sugar mills, a captive power plant and distilleries at Gopalganj and Chanpati or Motihari, Rajshree group chairman-cum-managing director Rajshree had agreed to set up sugar projects at Chakia, Motipur and Muzaffarpur, he said.

Goyal, who accompanied Pawar, would undertake a survey for opening a unit at a place which had a strong potential for cultivating sugarcane.

Pawar's announcement came after a high-level meeting with top state functionaries including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, state Sugarcane Development Minister Nitish Mishra and Union Minister of State for Agriculture Akhilesh Singh.

He said out of 28 sugar mills in Bihar, the 15 state-owned ones had been closed down while nine were operational. Condition of rest of the mills was "pretty bad", Pawar said.

Pawar said he took the initiative keeping in mind repeated requests by Railway Minister and RJD chief Laloo Prasad, Akhilesh Singh, Union Minister for Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and his party MP Tariq Anwar.

"All these leaders from Bihar were in regular touch with me for expansion and diversification of sugar mills in the state to cater to the requirements of sugarcane farmers,'' he said.

The Nitish government, too, made its contribution as it approached him for setting up new sugar mills and announced a package of incentives for the investors, he said.

Mishra described today's exercise as "satisfactory" and said the government had received 29 proposals for reopening closed sugar mills and setting up new ones.

The state government had been trying to mobilise investments for new sugar units in Bihar as reopening sick and closed mills was time-consuming, with the issue of their liquidation pending before the Patna High Court.