Sugar factory gobbled Kargil, quake funds to stay afloat

• Kargil Fund of Rs 15,05,153 not submitted to authority concerned

• Gujarat Flood Victims Relief Fund of Rs 10,60,708 and Gujarat Earthquake Relief Fund of Rs 10,30,336 not submitted

• Sugar Development Fund of Rs 1.34 crore used for daily factory expenses, instead of being disbursed as grants to member-farmers for improving yield

• Sugar Complex Fund of Rs 16,01,742 still lying with the factory

To top it all, there are over 500 ‘‘permanent’’ workers still stuck with the sprawling 400-acre factory at Dokhi village in Osmanabad — this is where the money was illegally diverted — who haven’t received their salary.

Said Bashir Kotwal (55), a driver who has been working with the Terna Shetkari Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana for the last 35 years: ‘‘I was drawing Rs 6,500 a month.’’ That was until eight months ago.

Besides, dues to financial institutions have touched the Rs 200-crore mark, with no signs of immediate repayment. And there’s no question of paying dividend to farmers who are also shareholders of Terna.

By Patil’s own admission, dues of Rs 9.6 lakh are to be paid to retired workers.

That was after nearly Rs 65.5 lakh was cut from payments to members for investment in small savings. Only Rs 36.7 lakh was invested—the factory used the remainder.

In Maharashtra, sugar cooperatives are run as fiefdoms by the politically powerful sugar lobby. Irregularities, corruption and mismanagement go unchallenged, officials fully aware of the clout of the sugar barons.

‘‘The goof-up appeared in the audit reports. In some cases, action was initiated by my office but was stayed after Terna went to the High Court,’’ said Bijoy Kumar, Maharashtra’s Commissioner for Sugar.

Now, Patil is all set to pass the buck. He’s blaming his former managing director R C Karva, who has already been booked in a Rs 10-crore sugar exports scam.

Once a trusted aide of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Patil found himself sidelined in the party when his cousin Pawanraje Nimbalkar’s name popped up in the Home Trade multi-crore government securities scam. Nimbalkar, incidentally, was a director of the Terna factory.

Back in Osmanabad, a little less than 20 km from the factory premises in drought-hit Veruda village, Satish Gadve (40) now works as a labourer, earning Rs 50 a day. Once a member of the co-operative, he used to supply the factory with 40 tonnes of sugarcane from his 18-acre field.