Odisha to revive defunct Bolangir sugar mill

Factory has stopped operation since June 2013

The Odisha government has decided to take management control of defunct 2500 tonne per day Bijayananda Self-Help Sugar Mills in Bolangir district via state-owned Bargarh Co-operative Sugar Mills.

At a recent meeting of senior bureaucrats here, it was decided that the Bargarh unit will take up the operation and management of Bijayananda Self-Help Sugar Mills while the operational loss will be borne by the latter.

The Bolangir based sugar factory had become defunct since June 2013 and subsequently, supply of electricity to the mill was disconnected from August, 2013. The co-operative sugar mill has not paid salaries of employees for last three months and owes Rs 13 lakh to sugar cane farmers. As the management failed to reconstitute a Board of Directors as per the new Odisha State Cooperative (Amendment) Act, 2013, it has been decided to appoint the Collector of Bolangir as Manager-In-Charge of the mill.

During a high level meeting conducted recently, additional chief secretary, in charge of the finance department, UN Behera suggested that the sugar mill needs to be run by the new management keeping in view the interest of the farmers.

The Bolangir sugar factory had come under the state government control in 2003 after its owner-promoter Ponni Sugar decided to sell the loss-making unit. The government was running the mill under the cooperative department since then.

However, the operation of the company hit a roadblock last year when allegations were made against the factory chairman and former Biju Janata Dal leader, Jagneshwar Babu for cheating the state exchequer Rs 36 crore under the disguise of loan requirement of the factory .

State vigilance officials said Babu, during his tenure as president of Orissa State Cooperative Bank, a scheduled cooperative bank, illegally sanctioned and disbursed different types of credit facilities amounting to Rs 36.18 crore to Bijayananda Self-Help Sugar Mills in connivance with the loan committee members of the bank without adequate security while he was also holding the post of chairman of the factory.

During a recent meeting, chief secretary J K Mohapatra directed the officials to start the process of disinvestment by Odisha State Cooperative Bank by taking over the assets of the sugar mill and transferring the ownership of the mill to recover their dues. The disinvestment process should be complete before November 2014, he added.

The state agricultural department estimates about 50,000 tonne sugar cane output in the current fiscal. While sugar cane harvesting starts from October, the crushing of cane begins from November.

The state government has currently three sugar mill under its cooperation department.

They are Aska Cooperative Sugar Industries, Baragarh Cooperative Sugar Mill, Bijayananda Self-Help Sugar Mill.

Its other sugar mill, Nayagarh Sugar Complex was sold to a private party in 2004.