Anakapalli: District in-charge and Mines and Excise Minister Kollu Ravindra assured that the issues of Govada sugar factory will be brought to the attention of the Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and steps will be initiated to resolve it at the earliest.
Along with MLA KSN Raju and joint collector M Jahnavi, the minister visited the Chodavaram Cooperative Sugar Factory in Govada on Wednesday and held a meeting with farmers and employees. During the meeting, the minister enquired about the present condition of the factory. Factory Managing Director V Sanyasi Naidu informed about the financial crisis of the factory.
Speaking on the occasion, Chodavaram MLA KSN Raju said that 25,000 farmers used to cultivate sugarcane in 32,000 acres, which declined drastically due to lack of minimum support price.
The MLA told the minister that all the co-operative sugar factories have been closed down and only Govada sugar factory is functioning in the district. He said that if the government does not extend support, this factory will also suffer a similar fate.
Further, the MLA stated that a payment of Rs 6 crore to the workers and Rs 3 crore to the farmers were pending. He informed that the factory has a deficit budget of around Rs.40 crore.
Responding to them, the district in-charge minister said that he would take the issue of the factory to the attention of the government and come up with an improved action plan and efforts would be taken to develop each district as a unit, he added. He said that the Centre would provide thousands of crores of rupees for the development of the state.
Kollu Ravindra said that the tour of the district commenced from the backward Chodavaram area. Initiatives are being taken for the development of the district from Chodavaram, he added.
Necessary measures will be taken for the continuation of the sugar factory and support for the production of alternative products such as ethanol and biodiesel will be extended, the minister assured. Later, they inspected the tahsildar office building and rythu bazar shop complex. He examined the works of seed development, treatment and storage centre of Seed Development Corporation being constructed in Gandhavaram village.
District manager K Naga Saibabu explained that the storage centre is being constructed with a seed storage capacity of 16,000 quintals in an area of five acres at a cost of Rs 4.7 crore.
The district in-charge minister asked the joint collector to take necessary steps to provide electricity and other infrastructure required for the building as the construction is expected to be completed by March 31. Revenue Divisional Officer Sheikh Aisha, tahsildar A Rama Rao, other officials and public representatives participated in the visit.
