Govt likely to take over Nizam Sugars
Hyderabad: The State government is all set to take over Nizam Sugar Factory Limited (NSFL). The Group of Ministers, constituted to study the issue, favoured taking over of the NSFL, which was privatised during the regime of former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
The GoM comprising six ministers held its meeting on Friday and discussed various issues involved in management of the factory.
Ministers Anam Ramanarayana Reddy, K Parthasarathy, P Sudarshan Reddy, Sunita Laxma Reddy and G Srinivasa Rao agreed in principle for the take-over move.
However, Minister for Major Industries J Geetha Reddy gave a miss to the meeting. Speaking to The Hans India, Anam said, 'We held the meeting to review the NSFL's issue and made several recommendations including taking over of the company by the government. But we have not taken any final decision on the issue'.
He informed that the GoM would submit its report to the government as early as possible. The fate of Nizam Sugars Limited is one of the key issues on the agenda of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) K Chandrasekhara Rao, who stated that NSFL would be taken over by the government once Telangana State was formed.
Nizam Sugar Factory was established in 1921 during the regime of the last Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan. The value of the factory was put at over Rs
800 crore but it was handed over to a private firmDeccan Paper Mills (DPM) at Rs 69 crore in 2002 by then Telugu Desam Party government citing reasons that the factory was reeling under losses.
Later it was named as Deccan Sugars Limited (DSL). A House Committee was appointed in 2004 following allegations that NSFL's joint venture agreement with DPM was deceitful, irregular and defective.
Sources said that there was immense pressure on Telangana Ministers for take-over of the NSFL by the government. Because of it, the ministers including P Sudarshan Reddy and Sunita Laxma Reddy were learnt to have argued very much in favour of the take-over option for the benefit of Telangana and the sugarcane growers.
News Posted: 18 January, 2014
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