The decision by the management of Mysore Paper Mills (MPM), a public sector undertaking in Bhadravati, to lease out the firm to a private partner has rekindled hopes of restarting production here. Production was halted at MPM, which has a paper and a sugar factory, since November 2015 citing losses.
The management had also recently introduced voluntary retirement scheme for the workers.
The management floated a tender on June 21 inviting applications from private establishments interested in operating and managing the firm on a lease basis.
The intention behind the exercise is to run the firm on a public-private partnership basis and thereby ensure its revival.
Speaking to The Hindu, C.S. Shivamurthy, president of MPM Workers’ Union, said that the interests of the workers should be protected when the production and management operations are leased out to a private firm.
Mr. Shivamurthy said that if the tender floated fails to get any response the State government should provide ₹20 crore as working capital for the firm to restart the sugar factory to protect interests of farmers and workers.
The amount will be used to repair machinery and to purchase coal and chemicals necessary to restart production, he said.
Sugarcane is cultivated on more than 6,000 acres in the district and a major chunk of the area under cultivation is under multi-ratooning cropping method.
The sugar factory attached to MPM has the capacity to crush 2,500 tonnes of sugarcane daily. Earlier, MPM used to enter into a buyback agreement with the sugarcane growers.
N.H. Devakumar, convener of Karnataka Rajya Kabbu Belegarara Sangha, an association of sugarcane growers told The Hindu that growers are in dire straits following the halt of production at MPM.
There has also been an inordinate delay in clearing the ₹2.92 crore dues that the firm owes towards growers for the produce supplied in 2010-11 and ₹48 lakh transport subsidy the State government owes towards them for 2016-17.
The farmers would sure be benefited if the production is resumed at the firm on public-private partnership model, he added.