ED case on Ajit Pawar-linked sugar mill leaves bitter taste in mouth for farmers

Originally a cooperative, the mill was privatised in 2010 — the Central agency is questioning this move, alleging that there were irregularities in the transaction by the new owner, which it says is linked to senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar.

Maharashtra’s second-largest sugar mill, Jarandeshwar crushed 19.98 lakh tonnes (lt) of cane in 2021-22 and 18.18 lt in the just-ended 2022-23 season. It made payments of Rs 531.79 crore and Rs 545.52 crore, respectively, to more than 20,000 farmers in these two seasons. Crushing normally takes place from October to April.

“This is the only mill we have in Koregaon,” said Shinde, whose link with the factory goes back to 1998-99, when it was promoted as a cooperative by Shalini Patil, wife of former Maharashtra CM and Maratha strongman Vasantdada Patil — Shinde was among the first farmers to invest in it. He bought five shares in the cooperative worth Rs 50,000.

“I don’t feel bad it was privatised. The mill has paid us much more than what we had invested. It never defaulted in the last 10 years,” Shinde, who supplies cane from his 6-acre holding in Kumathe village of Koregaon, said.

For fellow farmer from the village, Jitendra Jagdale, privatisation was the “best thing” that happened to the mill: “For one, it is better managed today, and crushing capacity has quadrupled from 2,500 tonnes to 10,000 tonnes per day — and there are plans to increase it further. What more can we ask for?”

The mill began operations as a cooperative in 2001-02 and today procures cane from other talukas of Satara such as Karad, Wai, Man, Khatav and Satara, as also nearby areas in Pune district.

From the start, though, lack of cane in the area was a persistent problem, Koregaon being a drought-prone taluka before a lift irrigation scheme under the Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation was completed in 2011-12.

The mill stopped crushing after the 2005-06 season. With financial troubles mounting, along with unpaid dues to a Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB)-led consortium, it was put up for auction and purchased in 2010 by Guru Commodity Services Pvt, which emerged as the highest bidder.

According to ED, MSCB auctioned the mill at an undervalued rate. It notes that Ajit Pawar was a director on MSCB’s board at the time. Funding for Guru Commodity was said to have come from a company called Sparkling Soil Pvt Ltd, allegedly connected to the NCP leader and wife Sunetra.

But for farmers like Shinde and Jagdale, these details don’t seem to matter much. “Before Jarandeshwar mill came up (as a cooperative), we had to even approach mills in Sangli and Kolhapur districts with our cane. We had to do the same when it closed after the 2005-06 season. We don’t want a repeat,” Shinde said.