Farmers oppose cane diversion from Tirupattur sugar mill

TIRUPATTUR: Members of the Tamil Nadu Sugarcane Farmers Association conducted an agitation in front of the Tirupattur co-operative sugar mill at Kethandapatti demanding action against officials who were inimical to the functioning of the mill, on Thursday.

Sources revealed that the Tirupattur facility plans to divert 1,000 tonnes of cane to the Subramania Siva Co-operative Sugar Mill in Dharmapuri as crushing is being affected due to issues with rollers in the mill.

The Tirupattur facility with a daily crushing capacity of 1,250 tonnes (TCD– tonnes crushed daily), eyed a total of 1.50 lakh tonnes this season-which included the mill’s own cane amounting to 1.20 lakh tonnes with another 30,000 tonnes being planned to be diverted to this unit from other areas.

Farmers rued that lorry drivers are forced to spend nearly a week’s time in the mill premises, the loads not being lifted, as poor upkeep and maintenance of the sugar mill’s machinery affected crushing which lead to protests. “If the mill officials had spent around Rs 45,000 initially to repair the defective roller, when the issue was first diagnosed, the mill would not have had to face the present predicament” said a former mill worker.

Lorry crew stated that private mills would at least provide them money for food in the waiting period, the same was not the case with the co-operative unit. “Lorries having loads of around 20 tonnes parked in one place for long periods isn’t not good for the vehicle’s tyres,” said a driver. Farmers too are unhappy as cane continued to be exposed to the Sun results in drying up.

A top mill official said the diversion was planned to ensure that the mill did not suffer under-utilisation of installed capacity. “We hope to become fully operational in a day or two,” he added.