Grist for mills in nick of time

In their petitions, the mill owners had alleged that ever since the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government came to power in the state, the co-operative sugar factories and spinning mills belonging to the Congress politicians, were denied budgetary allocation.

Earlier, the state government had declared support to the co-operative sector in two ways: participation in the share capital and guaranteed the term loans.

The court had summoned senior officials, including Director of Textiles, to explain the delay in payment. Additional Advocate General Bal Apte with government pleader Vikram Pai told the court that delay inpayment was not mala fide but due to genuine paucity of funds.

It was argued that the government could make provision for only Rs 22 crore, whereas the 50-odd co-operative establishments needed Rs 250 crore which made it difficult to decide the beneficiaries of the state funds.

However, the judges told the state government that it will have to pay a certain share of the promised capital, in order to expurgate the contempt.

As a result, the government decided to pay 30 per cent of the entitlement to each of the five spinning mills. A letter to that effect was placed in the court by the Principal Secretary, Department of Co-operation and Textiles. It was also stated that the balance amount will be sanctioned in the next budgetary year, subject to availability of funds.

The division bench took the government assurance on record and disposed off the contempt petitions. The ruling is important because the current budgetary year ends tomorrow and if the government had not released the grant, it would havelapsed.

Realising the gravity of the time-bound matter, the judges heard the parties on the Gudi Padwa holiday.