Gadkari shares dais with Pawar; NCP chief lavishes praise on BJP leader
@the_news_21
Pune: Notwithstanding the praise showered by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar for backing infrastructure projects cutting across party lines, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Nitin Gadkari on Saturday stunned the sugar lobby by arguing a pressing need to stop issuing fresh licenses to set up sugar factories in the State and elsewhere in India. He urged farmers in Maharashtra and other parts of the country to focus on producing ethanol from sugarcane juice instead of sugar.
He said this at a function held to inaugurate a slew of road projects in Ahmednagar district, where he shared the dais with the NCP chief Sharad Pawar.
Expressing concern about the surplus sugar stocks and the possible detrimental effects it could have on the rural economy, Gadkari said: “Producing sugar is a loss-making enterprise today. If the economic cycle goes in reverse gear, then farmers will not get any money for their produce, banks will crash and sugar factories will shut… No one (governments) buys sugar anymore. Hence, the focus in the future should be converting sugarcane juice to ethanol. The government is ready to buy ethanol, which is a green fuel. In this way, all petrol vehicles will run on ethanol in the future and the farmer, too, will be able to make money.”
He said that if farmers converted to producing ethanol in the near future, then the country’s ethanol imports would greatly reduce from the current 12 lakh crore to an estimated 5 lakh crore. Gadkari observed that the country had produced 310 lakh tons of sugar as against its requirement of only 240 lakh tonnes.
“We ended up producing 70 lakh tonnes excess sugar…the scenario in the international market is no better. In Brazil, two months ago, the price of sugar was Rs. 22 a kilo. We had managed to keep the price at Rs. 31 per kg…but farmers must realize that they will survive only as long as factories survive. Hence, when the Central government has already given permission for ethanol pumps, all sugar factories in Maharashtra must start an ethanol pump in their premises,” remarked Gadkari.
Outlining the tremendous scope for farmers in western Maharashtra and across the country if they plunged into the ethanol manufacturing enterprise, Gadkari said that last year, only 465 crore liters of ethanol had been manufactured while the requirement was much, much more.
“If we have to put 20% of ethanol in petrol, then the requirement is 1650 crore liters of ethanol. So, I urge all leaders in the State to impress upon farmers the need to switch quickly to ethanol manufacturing. I have already pressed for this implementation in sugar factories in Pune and Ahmednagar as a starter,” he said, urging Pawar and other leaders present on the dais to take the initiative in this regard.
Reiterating that he would make it mandatory for all vehicle manufacturers to make flex-fuel engines (that can run on more than one fuel) once he secured the Supreme Court’s approval, Gadkari warned that errant manufactures were liable to be penalized.
Crediting Pawar and leaders in western Maharashtra for engineering the State’s prosperity, Gadkari observed that the per capita income of Kolhapur district was the highest in the country as a result of its vibrant sugar and dairy industry.
“Likewise, Ahmednagar, hitherto drought-prone, grew in prosperity because some leaders successfully set-up sugar factories here. As a result, farmers in western Maharashtra became rich, their purchasing power increased and agriculture growth rate rose as well. So, in the coming years, the progress through sugar factories will be vital,” he remarked, urging sugar factories in this part to be in the vanguard of producing maximum ethanol.
Echoing the BJP leader, Pawar agreed with Gadkari, remarking that farmers would henceforth have to concentrate on producing ethanol and hydrogen gas from molasses besides sugar.
Both Pawar as well as his party colleague, Maharashtra Minister for Rural Development Hasan Mushrif, who were seated on either side of Gadkari, lavished praise on the BJP leader.
“Gadkari transcended politics while approving of projects. He only looks at what the demand is and concerns himself with the completion of a project, regardless of which member of a party pitches it. Therefore, people of all political parties are happy with him,” said the NCP chief.
Mushrif, who is Ahmednagar’s Guardian Minister, lauded the BJP leader by calling him “an open university” who took on, and successfully finished, awe-inspiring projects worth thousands of crores of rupees.
Recently, Gadkari’s party colleague, BJP leader Dr Kirit Somaiya had accused Mushrif and his kin of being embroiled in a Rs. 127 crore money-laundering scandal as well of irregularities to the tune of Rs. 100 crores in a cooperative sugar factory owned by the latter.
What raised eyebrows was the conspicuous absence on the dais was that of senior BJP leader from Ahmednagar, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil. However, his son, BJP MP Sujay Vikhe-Patil, was present on the occasion, the elder Vikhe-Patil stayed away presumably because of his bitter rivalry with and Pawar.
During the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the rivalry between the two clans came to a head after Pawar reportedly refused the ticket for the Ahmednagar parliamentary constituency to be given to Sujay Vikhe-Patil. At the time, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil was still with the Congress, with whom he broke to join the BJP.
