Fund-starved Maharashtra sugar industry pin hopes on new coalition govt

NCP commands considerable support among cane growers and sugar mills; 75% of the state's functional units owe allegiance to the party

The ailing Maharashtra cooperative sugar sector sees its fortunes reviving with the prospective installation of the three-party government in Maharashtra, which has the support of the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

A request for working capital support that the mills had made to Maharashtra State Co-op Bank Ltd, the apex bank in the state for cooperative lenders, was shot down. Due to this, they have not been able to start crushing operations, which usually begins in the first week of November. Their arrears to farmers from the previous season run into a few thousand crore rupees.

Maharashtra, the country’s