Sugar Ethanol Bioenergy Int- Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday acknowledged Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s significant contribution to popularising ethanol, stating that several individuals had worked towards its promotion; among them, Gadkari’s contribution has been significant. “His views and initiatives have been favourable to the sugar industry and cane farmers,” Pawar said. “The ethanol policy has helped control sugar prices. I don’t know who is trying to malign Gadkari, but whatever he is doing, it is in the interest of the farmers.”Pawar was speaking at a sugar mill workers’ convention in Panhala, Kolhapur, where he addressed several pressing issues facing the industry.
He emphasized the need for policy decisions to safeguard the sector, particularly calling for a cap on the crushing capacity of sugar mills and restrictions on how many mills one individual or company can control, as per the news report by The Times of India.“I can understand a few mills having a crushing capacity as high as 25,000 tonnes. However, small mills in the vicinity have high chances of shutting down. The time has come to decide whether to let the industry be controlled by many people or have a handful of them controlling it,” he further added,Speaking at a press conference in Kolhapur, Pawar also commented on allegations that the Centre was extending loans selectively to cooperative sugar mills with political links. He said, “If the Centre is helping ailing mills, that’s a good move. But support should be based on the needs of the mills, not politics. With politics encroaching into the cooperative sector, the result is now that there are 106 private and 96 cooperative mills; it was the reverse some years ago.”
