Govt. mulls law to check use of fraudulent weighing machines by private sugar factories

As many private sugar factories are allegedly cheating sugarcane growers in weighing cane and denying minimum support price, the State government on Friday informed the Legislative Assembly that it is planning to formulate a new law on the lines of the Maharashtra Regulation of Sugarcane Price Act, 2013, to regulate private factories. In a reply to the debate on alleged cheating of cane growers, cane transporters and labourers involved in harvesting the crop by private sugar factories, Minister for Sugar Shivananda Patil said factories have been operating without obtaining permission from the government for crushing the cane. The action should start from the top and not from the bottom, Mr. Kage said and blamed the politicians for the “corrupt” management system in private sugar factories. Patil and Mr. Kage demanded that the Minister should initiate stern action against private sugar units involved in fraudulent methods of weighing cane in sugar factories.