Re-start sugarcane factory, say growers

Congress workers and sugarcane growers, on Monday, staged a protest in front of the Hemavati Sugar Factory at Srinivasapura in Channarayapatna taluk demanding that the factory start functioning at the earliest. The factory has stopped working since January 2016.

Blaming the executive body of the factory for the closure, the protesters said that the factory started in 1984 in the interest of farmers had failed to serve its purpose. The management committee handed over the factory to a private body with conditions to improvise the factory’s crushing capacity. However, the private body had failed to meet the conditions. It had not paid rent over the years, the protesters said.

Congress MLC M.A. Gopalaswamy said that with the closure of the factory, the farming community had been facing difficulty as it had to carry produce to other factories. “We will set September 30 as deadline for re-starting the factory. If the factory fails to keep the deadline, we will launch a march from Channarayapatna to the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Hassan the next day,” he said.

Congress leader J.M. Ramachandra said that Shravanabelgola MLA C.N. Balakrishna had failed to restart the factory. He had been after positions in organisations, rather than responding to problems faced by people in the constituency. “The MLA should fight for the welfare of the sugarcane growers,” he said.

The protesters took out a march from the factory premises to Channarayapatna town where they submitted a memorandum to the tahsildar. The former MLA Putte Gowda, District Congress Committee president Javagal Manjunath, Women Congress Committee president Pushpa Amaranath and others led the protest.

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