Medha Patkar to sit on dharna outside Maharashtra Assembly against corruption in sugar trade

Social activist and convenor of the National Alliance for Peoples’ Movements Medha Patkar has said she would stage a dharna in front of the state legislature on Tuesday against “massive corruption to the tune of Rs 20,000 crore” in the sale and purchase of cooperative sugar units and to demand a judicial probe into the matter.

Addressing the media,Patkar said the once pulsating model of cooperative movement in the state that benefited farmers,workers and other stakeholders was systematically bled of resources to allow a distress sale to private companies,many of them owned by politicians from both ruling and opposition parties. “Farmers had given away their land at throwaway prices for these units that functioned well for many years before degenerating into dysfunctional units from 1990 onwards. While farmers and mill workers suffered,the sugar barons and top office-bearers,mostly politicians,amassed riches and a sugar development fund worth several thousand crores was collected by the Centre. The units were then sold off at throwaway prices. Many politicians like Ajit Pawar,Amit Deshmukh,Jayant Patil,Ashok Chavan,Fauzia Khan,Rajesh Tope,Nitin Gadkari and Eknath Khadse were involved in this sale-purchase process,” she alleged.

“A probe was conducted by the Department of Cooperation,which is not acceptable to us. We demand that a judicial probe be conducted into the affair and a report be submitted within three to six months,” said Patkar.

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She also demanded immediate halt to sale and purchase of the units,return of sold units to farmer-worker cooperatives,immediate payments of dues to workers and interest to share-holders.

The National Sugar Millworkers’ Federation will join Patkar in the stir.