Nizam Sugars not so sweet, K Chandrasekhar Rao told

Hyderabad: The ambitious plans of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to take over the Nizam Sugar Factory appear to have hit a roadblock in the form of a high-power committee appointed by his government to examine the issue.

The panel is learnt to have concluded that taking over the factory and running it on its own was not a feasible option for the government. The panel felt it would be better to explore the privatisation options either with the existing management or hand it over to some other private players. The factory, which was closed down in December 2015, was privatised by the previous TD government in 2002.

Mr Rao promised to take over the factory numerous times during the statehood agitation, general elections and also after becoming the CM. He had said that the “Andhra governments” in undivided AP had deliberately pushed one of the historical factories set up by the Nizam into a crisis and he would restore it to its past glory once Telangana state was formed.

The government, which has 49 per cent stake in the factory at present, will have to spend around '500 crore to buy the remaining 51 per cent stake if it wants to take over the factory.

The TRS government is coming under fire from the Opposition and also various organisations and workers ever since the private management declared layoffs and closed the factory units in Medak, Karimnagar and Nizamabad districts in December 2015, abruptly rendering hundreds jobless.

While workers were pinning hopes on the TS government to revitalise the factory after Mr Rao became CM, it was closed down altogether. However, Mr Rao tried to pacify the agitating staff saying that the takeover proposal was under consideration as the government had appointed a committee to study and recommend a roadmap for the purpose.

But the committee opined that instead of incurring an unnecessary expenditure of nearly Rs 500 crore to take over the factory and suffer losses later, it would be better to exit from the factory by selling its 49 per cent stake and handing it over to an efficient private management.

The factory is currently owned by Gokaraju Rangaraju, a prominent businessman from West Godavari district, whose group, Delta Sugars Ltd, has a major stake.
However, it remains to be seen whether Mr Rao accepts the committee’s recommendations since the factory is attached to ‘T-sentiment’ and any decision on privatising it again is bound to have political ramifications.