The Nizamabad Cooperative Sugar Factory (NCSF) protection committee honorary president M. Venkata Srinivas Reddy urged the government to allocate Rs.200 crore to the factory for its revival in the budget to be introduced in the Assembly shortly. In a memorandum submitted to Panchayat Raj Minister K.T. Rama Rao at the Secretariat on Thursday, Mr. Reddy said that NCSF was the lone factory under cooperative sector and was run on sound lines till 1997. The factory remained closed for the last five years as the then government neglected it with an intention to privatise, he added. Established in the year 1964 with Rs.1.85 crore share capital and 23,800 cane farmers as members, the factory was offered for privatisation at a throwaway rate of Rs.10 crore. However, the attempts were foiled with the protection committee filing petitions in the court, he said, and appealed to the government to revive it in the larger interest of farmers, agricultural coolies, besides others.
He urged the Minister to call upon the experts in the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories, New Delhi, for a study on the factory and its revival. He also said that the factory could be run effectively if an IAS officer is appointed as its MD. He also wanted clearing of arrears.