The historic Nizam Sugar Factory (presently called Nizam Deccan Sugars Limited) has been closed down permanently throwing hundreds of families to the streets.
The factory management, which had announced the lay-off two days ago, locked out the factory on Sunday.
With this, the 77-year-old history of the factory which provided employment to several hundreds of workers and farmers came to an end. The 40-day strike and relay hunger strikes of the workers to run the factory did not yield result.
Though all the political parties made it an election issue and promised to ensure the running of factory, no action had been taken on that side. When crushing was in full swing in the factory, Bodhan and its surrounding villages appeared to be very colourful with farmers coming to the town with sugarcane and going back with money and commodities purchased by them.
Several hotels and kiosks were thriving with businesses. But, that glory had faded out gradually over the years.
After the then Telugu Desam government sold out the factory to private management, the factory’s downfall began.
In fact, farmers have always been ready to transplant sugarcane but they could not get encouragement in the form of Minimum Support Price and prompt payment. Till now, their arrears to the tune of Rs.27 crores have not been cleared.
The Assembly House Committee that was constituted when Y. S. Rajashekar Reddy was the Chief Minister recommended that the government take over the factory from private management. However, for reasons not known, it has not happened.
