Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS) leader Raju Shetti.Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS) leader Raju Shetti has once again criticised NCP leader Sharad Pawar over the way the sugar industry is functioning.
Shetti, who had walked out of the Maha Vikas Aghadi way before the BJP and the then Shinde fraction of the Shiv Sena toppled it, held an Oosh Parishad (Cane conclave) at Pawar’s bastion of Baramati on Wednesday where he called for more transparency in the manner sugar mills calculate their recovery loss due to diversion towards ethanol. At the meeting almost next door to Pawar’s home turf in Baramati taluka, Shetti asked for transparency in the manner sugar mills are run.
He alleged that the present management in most sugar mills have not been honest in how they calculate the recovery loss in sugar mills due to diversion towards ethanol. His remarks come amid his efforts at a comeback and this can be seen as his next course of action.
Shetti’s election as an MLA saw him take on Pawar, who was with the Congress then, and his supporters. Now, Pawar as an NCP leader has had many sugar millers, both private and cooperative, siding with his party. Given the nature of Shetti’s politics, the farmers’ outfit has crossed swords with Pawar and leaders of both the Congress and the NCP.
Shetti fought the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the Hatkananagle constituency in Kolhapur district as a combined candidate of the NCP and the Congress. However, the then Sena candidate, Dhairyasheel Mane, defeated him with a margin of over 1 lakh votes.
Shetti also sided with the MVA government, only to later walk out of the alliance with his lone MLA, Devendra Bhuyar being expelled from the farmer’s outfit. The annual Oosh Parishad at Jaisinghpur in Shetti’s home district of Kolhapur early October set the tone for the crushing season with the outfit asking for a set amount as the first instalment payment.
This season, the outfit has asked for Rs 350 over the government declared Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) as the first instalment payment of cane. While the Vasantdada Sugar Institute in Manjri Pune has been asked to do the calculations and make necessary offsets, Shetti has claimed that the institute, which is headed by Pawar, would not be reliable.