Mandya: The miseries of the State-owned Mysore Sugars Company Limited, popularly known as MySugar factory, refuse to end as the facility has reportedly fallen victim to a labour contractor who absconded after collecting advance payment for cutting sugarcane, reports Star of Mysore.
During the ‘Save MySugar’ event held on Friday, Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Dr H.L. Nagaraju, who also serves as the Managing Director of MySugar, detailed the incident. “A Maistry had brought labourers from Vijayapura and Ballari, promising that they would handle sugarcane cutting for the factory. I paid him an advance of Rs. 2 crores, believing that he would fulfil his promise. However, no labourers have shown up for the work, and the Maistry has disappeared. It’s become increasingly difficult to recover the funds,” Nagaraju explained.
He expressed deep concern over the situation and said that as MD of MySugar, he has been getting calls from farmers to dispatch labourers to harvest fully grown sugarcane.”This issue troubles me constantly,” he remarked, adding that he is pained by the plight of sugarcane growers. He also lamented that local youth are unwilling to engage in sugarcane cutting, forcing the factory to rely on workers from distant districts.
Reflecting on his dashed hopes for the factory’s revival, Dr Nagaraju urged the missing labour contractor to return and begin the sugarcane cutting, warning that the delay is causing the crop’s yield to deteriorate with each passing day.
Meanwhile, MySugar factory Chairman C.D. Gangadhar offered a differing account of the financial loss, stating that the labour contractor had absconded with Rs. 1 crore, not Rs. 2 crore, as previously mentioned by Dr. Nagaraju. This conflicting information has confused the sugarcane growers.
Gangadhar confirmed that the labour contractor from North Karnataka had indeed defrauded the factory by failing to deliver the promised workers, leading to severe disruptions in the sugarcane-cutting operations. However, he insisted that the amount lost was Rs. 1 crore.
