Mandya: The MySugar Factory in Mandya, a crucial lifeline for the district’s farmers and the only government-owned sugar factory in Karnataka, is once again embroiled in controversy. Established in 1932, this historic factory has a long history marred by financial losses, corruption, and repeated shutdowns. Although the state government was attempting to revive this mill, some recent technical problems have kept the milling of sugarcane in abeyance, leaving the farmers in a lurch, reports The Hans India.
The mill closed for many years and was revived last year when the State Congress government released Rs 50 crores. This was the much-needed financial impetus that the mill needed to crush 2,41,000 metric tons of sugarcane in the previous season, a giant step in its trajectory of revival. The mill had set a target of crushing 2,50,000 metric tons of sugarcane during the present season of 2024-25. To accomplish this task, the management launched an awareness drive for the supply of sugarcane by farmers on June 30.
Milling began on August 2 with farmers bringing sugarcane to the factory in bullock carts, but just when the season had picked up full throttle, a technical glitch forced operations to come to an abrupt halt. Milling has been kept on hold for the last five days, and the sugarcane brought by the farmers is drying under the scorching sun. This has resulted in growing frustration for the farmers, who are incurring huge financial losses as they could not sell their sugarcane to any other party because of the existing contracts with the factory.
The situation has brought up fresh anger in farmers, many of whom have been working hard to deal with falling profits and rising costs. To so many of them, the recurring issues at the MySugar Factory have been a kind of betrayal by that which they had taken for a system that could not protect the interests of farmers.
