Crushing units stop at Thummapala

Visakhapatnam: Sugarcane farmers in Anakapalle are back to square one. After waging years of battle, the Anakapalle V V Ramana Cooperative Sugars Limited, better known as

Thummapala

sugar factory, became operational on December 28, last year. After crushing 10,954 tonnes of sugarcane in 40 days, all six crushing units of the

factory

came to a standstill on January 30 and 1,500 tonnes of sugarcane have been damaged in the process.

The 338 employees, including 284 Non Muster Roll staff and 30 contract employees, and more than 7,000 farmers, who live in the vicinity of the mill, are now forced to face the same problems again. Around 60% of the farmers have been cultivating sugarcane for the past three generations, Visakha Raitu Samakya leader Dadi Ratnakar told TOI. He alleged that the current TDP MLA Peela Govinda Satyanarayana colluded with dairy authorities to convert the 34 acre mill site into residential layouts by closing the factory down.

The

sugar

factory was commissioned in 1959 and operations came to a halt in 2014. Around 47 workers, including a few who retired between 2014 to 2018, died without getting any salary. After the government released Rs 11 crore for the salaries, the employees received salaries for 45 months out of the 48 months for which they were due, sources said.

When the factory had begun to make losses in 2013, the-then factory management had taken a loan of Rs 3.8 crore from (AP State Co-operative Bank) by mortgaging parts of the factory land and properties. The amount has now reached Rs 8 crore with interest. The bank has received High Court approval to attach factory assets. Moreover, a loan of Rs 50 lakh was taken from Indian Overseas Bank, which has gone up to Rs 80 lakh with interest. The bank has approached a tribunal. District Co-operative Central Bank too has claimed that the management had borrowed 35 lakh a decade and a half ago and it has risen to Rs 3.60 crore with interest, factory sources said.